Jack Dodd

John Newton Dodd (19 April 1922 – 20 May 2005) was a New Zealand physicist who worked in the field of atomic spectroscopy.

Jack Dodd
Born
John Newton Dodd

(1922-04-19)19 April 1922
Hastings, New Zealand
Died20 May 2005(2005-05-20) (aged 83)
Dunedin, New Zealand
CitizenshipNew Zealand
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham
Spouse(s)
Jean Patricia Oldfield
​
​
(m. 1950)​
Children4
AwardsHector Medal (1976)
Scientific career
FieldsAtomic spectroscopy, nuclear physics
InstitutionsUniversity of Otago
ThesisProton scattering experiments: a study of the elastic and inelastic scattering of protons from gold, aluminium, magnesium and carbon (1952)

Early life and family

Born in Hastings in 1922,[1][2] Dodd was educated at Otago Boys' High School.[3] In 1950, he married Jean Patricia Oldfield, and the couple went on to have four children.[3]

Adacemic career

Dodd attended the University of Otago, graduating with an MSc with first-class honours in 1946.[4] After a PhD at the University of Birmingham, he returned to the University of Otago to take up a lectureship. He was awarded a professorial chair in 1965 and retired in 1988.[1]

While on leave in Oxford in 1959–1960, he worked with George Series who was applying techniques developed by Alfred Kastler's research group in Paris to demonstrate that radiation from a coherent superposition of excited states of atoms would display interference effects, known as quantum beats, and together they developed the theoretical explanation for the phenomenon.[5][6] His friendship with Series was long lasting, and it was Jack Dodd who edited a memorial Festschrift for George Series after his death in 1995.[7]

Honours and awards

Dodd was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1964,[8] and was president of the society from 1989 to 1993.[9] In 1976, he won the society's Hector Medal, at that time the highest prize in New Zealand science.[10] In 1990, he was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.[3]

Honorific eponym

The Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, a New Zealand Centre of Research excellence based in the University of Otago, was named after Jack Dodd and Dan Walls in recognition of their pioneering roles in establishing New Zealand's internationally recognised standing in photonics, quantum optics and ultra-cold atoms.[2]

Selected works
  • Dodd, John N. (1991). Atoms and light: interactions. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4757-9333-8.

References
  1. Ballagh, Rob. "John Newton Dodd". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  2. "About Jack Dodd and Dan Walls". Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  3. Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 123. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
  4. "NZ university graduates 1870–1961: Da–Do". Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  5. Dodd, J N; Fox, W N; Series, G W; Taylor, M J (1959). "Light Beats as Indicators of Structure in Atomic Energy Levels". Proceedings of the Physical Society. 74 (6): 789–791. Bibcode:1959PPS....74..789D. doi:10.1088/0370-1328/74/6/122.
  6. Dodd, J N; Series, G W (1961). "Theory of Modulation of Light in a Double Resonance Experiment". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 263 (1314): 1314. Bibcode:1961RSPSA.263..353D. doi:10.1098/rspa.1961.0165.
  7. Dodd, J N (1997). "Editorial". Physica Scripta. T70: 5. doi:10.1088/0031-8949/1997/T70/E02.
  8. "The Academy: D–F". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  9. "Presidents".
  10. "Hector Medal". Royal Society of New Zealand. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
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