Looking back
These days before New Year seem steeped in a strange nostalgia, and not just for the year just gone. At the end of my career, I find myself turning over the years at the beginning of it. In such a frame of mind I saw that my PhD supervisor, Eric Ash, had passed peacefully at his home earlier this year. It’s not false modesty to say that I wasn’t his most glittering student, but the things I learned and saw in that lab, and the relationships I formed set the arc for forty years of enjoyment (and some achievement) in engineering. A quote I saw on his Imperial College obit., “We’re all children of our parents, and certainly children of the person who supervised our PhDs.” My belated condolences to Clare and the Ashlets.
Nick Nick Johnson, just found your earlier post while reading about the Cavendish. I studied semiconductor physics under Eric in my final year at UCL in 1968 and learned so much more from his inspiration during the course. It set a direction for my career also. I was pleased to correspond with and thank him shortly before his death.
Nick, I am with you and the Ashes on this. 😢. Eric and our 904 lab friendships are forever part of who we are.
“We’re all children of our parents, and certainly children of the person who supervised our PhDs.” Couldn't agree more