Timothy Softley

Education

Softley was educated at The Hewett School in Norwich and Wadham College, Oxford.[1] He moved to the University of Southampton to complete a PhD supervised by Alan Carrington in 1984.[3][2]

Career and research

Softley is distinguished for his advances in two areas of Chemical Physics.[3] First, the study of atoms and molecules in highly excited quantum states, known as Rydberg states.[3] He has used his understanding of their properties, gained from laser spectroscopy and theory, to develop new applications including the study of model charge-transfer processes at solid-gas interfaces.[3] Second, he has pioneered unique experiments utilising combinations of novel physical devices for making cold atoms, molecules and ions, for studying the kinetics and dynamics of chemical processes at ultralow temperatures – close to the absolute zero of temperature – where quantum effects determine the reactivity.[3]

Much of his work was conducted in a twenty five-year period at Merton College, Oxford , where he served as head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford from 2011 to 2015.[3] His former doctoral students include Helen H. Fielding.[4]

Awards and honours

Softley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018 for substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge.[3] He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). He was also awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF) at the University of Cambridge, held a Harkness Fellowship at Stanford University[3][2] and was awarded the Corday Morgan Medal in 1994.[3]

References
  1. Anon (2019). "Softley, Prof. Timothy Peter". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
  2. Softley, Timothy Peter (1984). Infrared predissociation spectroscopy of diatomic atoms. jisc.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Southampton. OCLC 59338370. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.354303.
  3. Anon (2018). "Professor Timothy Softley FRS". London: Royal Society. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --"Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies". Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. Fielding, Helen H. (1992). The Stark effect in atomic and molecular Rydberg states (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 863543304. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.314877.
  5. "Professor Tim Softley". University of Birmingham. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  6. Timothy Softley publications from Europe PubMed Central
  7. ORCID 0000-0002-5285-6308

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