Harry Hindmarsh Atkinson (5 August 1929 – 30 December 2018) was a British physicist and science administrator.^[1] He served as chair of theEuropean Space Agency Council between 1984 and 1987.

Born inWellington, New Zealand, on 5 August 1929, Atkinson was the son of Constance Hindmarsh Atkinson (née Shields) and Harry Temple Atkinson, who served as head of the New Zealand Patent Office.^[2] His paternal grandfather wasHarry Atkinson, who had been prime minister of New Zealand on four occasions between 1876 and 1891.^[2] The family moved toNelson when Atkinson was 12 years old, and he was educated atNelson College from 1942 to 1947.^[2][3]

Atkinson was influenced to study science byThomas Easterfield, and graduated fromCanterbury University College with aMaster of Science with first-class honours in physics in 1953.^[2][4] He then began doctoral studies atCornell University in the United States in 1954, but moved to theUniversity of Cambridge and theAtomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) underNeville Mott 18 months later, completing hisPhD in 1959.^[2][5] The title of his thesis wasSmall angle scattering of X-rays and neutrons from metals.^[6]

In 1958, Atkinson married Anne Barrett inCambridge, and the couple went on to have three children.^[2]

After completing his doctorate, Atkinson remained at AERE at Harwell for several years, before moving to the nearbyRutherford Laboratory where he headed the general physics group for seven years. From 1968 to 1972, he was seconded to the office of thechief scientific advisor in theCabinet Office in London, where he provided advice on a wide range of topics. Atkinson was appointed head of theScience Research Council astronomy and space division in 1972; his tenure saw Britain expand its research activity in astronomy, with new optical telescopes in Hawaii and the Canary Islands, and improvements to existing radio telescopes in England. When the European Space Agency (ESA) was formed in 1975, Atkinson became the British delegate to the ESA Council, and served as its vice chairman from 1981 to 1984 and chairman from 1984 to 1987. He also had operational oversight of several European nuclear physics research institutes during the 1980s.^[2]

Although semi-retiring in 1990, Atkinson continued as chief scientist of the British insurance industry's Loss Prevention Council. In 2000, he chaired a task force investigatingnear-earth objects, and in 2006 he was honoured when an asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter was named5972 Harryatkinson by theInternational Astronomical Union.^[2]

In his later years, Atkinson suffered from dementia, and he died inOxfordshire on 30 December 2018.^[2]

• 1929 births
• 2018 deaths
• People educated at Nelson College
• University of Canterbury alumni
• Cornell University alumni
• Alumni of the University of Cambridge
• New Zealand emigrants to the United Kingdom
• British physicists
• Atkinson–Hursthouse–Richmond family
• Scientists from Wellington City
• 20th-century New Zealand physicists
• 21st-century British physicists

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