Professor David Morris Lee, Doctor of Science (honoris causa)

Honorary Degrees

Wednesday, 8th December, 2004

David Morris Lee, one of the great low temperature physicists of modern times, was fortunate as a graduate student to be one of the first to study the rare isotope helium-3, then becoming available as a by-product of the nuclear industry. His work culminated in the co-award of the 1996 Nobel Prize for physics for the discovery superfluidity in liquid helium-3. Ultimately this led to the understanding that the quantum structure of liquid helium-three mimics the structure of space-time itself, an analogy which has long been a major preoccupation of the Lancaster group. Dave Lee has been an influential behind-the-scenes friend of low temperature physics here at Lancaster and his mild, easy-going manner cloaks a decisive and enquiring mind.