Alan Howard Cottrell, shortly after stepping down as Vice-President of the Royal Society in 1967. © Godfrey Argent Studio.
Many important ideas and concepts flow from the work of great scientists and engineers. With their passing, it is timely to recount these ideas, both to understand the historical context in which they were conceived and to assess their ongoing and future development. Since Sir Alan Cottrell’s death in February 2012, there have been many tributes to him and his work. An appropriate recognition of this in the case of Sir Alan is the establishment by the University of Cambridge earlier this year of the Sir Alan Cottrell Professorship of Materials Science Fund to support the research expenses of the future Sir Alan Cottrell Professor of Materials Science at the University. His inspiration continues to motivate engineers and scientists.
This volume of Philosophical Magazine is dedicated to Sir Alan. It contains papers from a number of distinguished scientists who either worked with Sir Alan or have been greatly influenced by him. We are particularly delighted that so many authors who have been with him since his early days have been able and willing to contribute. We feel it is especially appropriate that Philosophical Magazine has produced this Special Issue. Sir Alan chose this journal for many of his most seminal papers. This continued right up to the very last papers he published.
A short biography of Sir Alan by Prof. Sir Peter Hirsch appears as the Prelude to the sixteen papers. Sir Alan’s own account of his life is available through the British Library National Life Stories of Oral History at http://sounds.bl.uk/. At this web site, his one hour and a half interview with Thomas Lean recorded at his home in Cambridge on 15 March 2011 can be heard, and the interview transcript can also be downloaded as a pdf.
Anthony Kelly, Senior Guest Editor with Guest Editors: L. Michael Brown, A. Lindsay Greer and Kevin M. Knowles.