It is with great sadness that we share the news that Bruce Forsyth has died at the age of 91.
Bruce Forsyth was a renowned research scientist who made significant contributions to the study of the atomic and magnetic structure of materials through his developments of the technique of polarised neutron scattering.
Following a PhD in Cambridge, Bruce moved to Harwell where he designed and built diffractometers on the Dido and Pluto reactors as part of Harwell’s expanding user programme providing access for academic researchers.
He joined the Neutron Beam Research Unit, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in 1972. The NBRU, under the leadership of Leo Hobbis, had been set up initially to support the development of a research reactor to replace Dido and Pluto. However, with the closure of the NIMROD synchrotron on the RAL site, the opportunity presented itself to build a world-leading pulsed neutron source based on the accelerator infrastructure and expertise at RAL, which eventually became the ISIS Facility.
In 1973 the UK joined the ILL as a full partner, and Bruce went to Grenoble for a sabbatical in 1975-1976. There he helped design and build the D3 polarized-neutron diffractometer together with Jane Brown and Francis Tasset. Bruce continued an active role at the ILL even after he returned to RAL. He played an important part in the development of the Cryopad which, for the first time, exploited the full vector character of the polarization. The technique is now called “spherical neutron polarimetry”, and has been a powerful tool in the understanding of antiferromagnetic structures.
Back at RAL, Bruce played a key role in developing the scientific case for ISIS as secretary of the ‘Structure Determination’ working group (led by Brian Fender), which assessed the range of science that could be achieved by the new source and outlined the key parameters for a number of crystallographic instruments, including the High-Resolution Powder Diffractometer HRPD and the Single Crystal Diffractometer SXD.
Bruce’s career developed in instrument building both at RAL and the ILL, Grenoble; in science and in computing. His computing skills were key to defining the computing and data acquisition system for the new facility and his acronym PuNCH (Pulsed Neutron Computer Hierarchy) lives on at ISIS today. He co-authored the specification-of-requirements document issued to companies bidding to supply the control and analysis computers.
As well as authoring scientific papers on the subject, he was instrumental in producing the Cambridge Crystallographic Subroutine Library CCSL suite of software which is still widely used in the international scientific community.
Bruce retired from RAL in 1997 after 25 years on the international scene but continued to be active with honorary positions at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford and the University of Warwick as well as collaborations in Grenoble.
Throughout his career, Bruce brought enthusiasm and energy to all his work – engaging and positive and always sporting a cravat and sandals! He was a ‘light touch’ manager, allowing and encouraging his team to develop and flourish. He and Janette made team members welcome, and were generous in making their holiday home in East Portlemouth available to colleagues. Bruce was a class act and a true polymath.