Peter William Atkins | |
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| Born | (1940-08-10)10 August 1940 (age 85) Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Alma mater | University of Leicester |
| Known for | Academic-level chemistry textbooks |
| Spouses | |
| Awards | RSCMeldola Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physical chemistry |
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| Doctoral advisor | MCR Symons |
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Peter William AtkinsFRSC (born 10 August 1940) is an Englishchemist and a Fellow ofLincoln College at theUniversity of Oxford. He retired in 2007. He is a prolific writer of popular chemistrytextbooks, includingPhysical Chemistry,Inorganic Chemistry, andMolecular Quantum Mechanics. Atkins is also the author of a number of popular science books, includingAtkins' Molecules,Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science andOn Being.
Atkins left school (Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham) at fifteen and took a job atMonsanto as a laboratory assistant. He studied for A-levels by himself and gained a place, following a last-minute interview, at theUniversity of Leicester.
Atkins studied chemistry there, obtaining aBSc degree in chemistry, and aPhD degree in 1964 for research intoelectron spin resonance spectroscopy, and other aspects of theoretical chemistry. Atkins then took a postdoctoral position atUCLA as aHarkness Fellow of the Commonwealth fund.[1] He returned to Britain in 1965 as a fellow and tutor ofLincoln College,Oxford, and lecturer in physical chemistry (later, professor of physical chemistry). In 1969, he won theRoyal Society of Chemistry'sMeldola Medal. In 1996 he was awarded theTitle of Distinction of Professor of Chemistry. He retired in 2007, and since then has been a full-time author.[2]
He has honorary doctorates from theUniversity of Utrecht, theUniversity of Leicester (where he sits on the university Court),Mendeleev University in Moscow, andKazan State Technological University.
He was a member of the Council of theRoyal Institution and theRoyal Society of Chemistry. He was the founding chairman ofIUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education, and is a trustee of a variety of charities.
Atkins has lectured inquantum mechanics,quantum chemistry, andthermodynamics courses (up to graduate level) at the University of Oxford. He is a patron of theOxford University Scientific Society.
In 2016 Atkins received theJames T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public from theAmerican Chemical Society.[3]
Atkins is a well-knownatheist.[4] He has written and spoken on issues ofhumanism, atheism, and conflicts between science and religion. According to Atkins, whereas religion scorns the power of human comprehension, science respects it.[5]
He was the first Senior Member of the Oxford University Secular Society, a Distinguished Supporter ofHumanists UK (formerly known as the British Humanist Association) and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.[6] He is also a member of the advisory board ofThe Reason Project, a US-based charitable foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. The organisation is led by fellow atheist and authorSam Harris. Atkins has regularly participated in debates with theists, includingJohn Lennox,[7]Alister McGrath,Stephen C. Meyer,Hugh Ross,[8]William Lane Craig,[9][10]RabbiShmuley Boteach,[11] andRichard Swinburne.
In December 2006, Atkins was interviewed by journalistRod Liddle in a UK television documentary on atheism calledThe Trouble with Atheism. In the documentary, Liddle asked Atkins: "Give me your views on the existence, or otherwise, of God." Atkins replied: "Well, it's fairly straightforward: There isn't one. And there's no evidence for one, no reason to believe that there is one, and so I don't believe that there is one. And I think that it is rather foolish that people do think that there is one."[12] In July 2016, Atkins was quoted as stating, “We are a hiccup on the way from one oblivion to another oblivion.”[13]
Atkins is known for his use of strident language in criticising religion: He appeared in the 2008 documentary-style filmExpelled: No Intelligence Allowed, in which he told interviewerBen Stein that religion was "a fantasy" and "completely empty of any explanatory content. It is also evil".[14]
In 2007, Atkins's position on religion was described byColin Tudge in an article inThe Guardian as being non-scientific. In the same article, Atkins was also described as being "more hardline than Richard Dawkins", and of deliberately choosing to ignorePeter Medawar's famous adage that "Science is the art of the soluble".[15]
Atkins married Judith Kearton in 1964 and they had one daughter, Juliet (born 1970). They divorced in 1983. In 1991, he married fellow scientistSusan Greenfield (later Baroness Greenfield). They divorced in 2005. In 2008, he married Patricia-Jean Nobes (née Brand).
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