Editing Sam Edwards (physicist)

{{short description|Welsh physicist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
| name =  Sam Edwards
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|FRS|FLSW}}
| image = SamEdwardsBetter.jpg
| image_size     = 180px
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1928|2|01|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Swansea]], Wales
| death_date = {{death date and age|2015|5|07|1928|2|01|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Cambridge]], England
| death_cause =
| nationality = Welsh
| field = Physics
| work_institution = [[University of Cambridge]]
| alma_mater =[[University of Cambridge]]<br />[[Harvard University]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Julian Schwinger]]
| thesis_title = A new approach to the theory of renormalised fields
| thesis_year = 1954
| thesis_url = https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1mdq5o5/TN_cdi_britishlibrary_ethos_oai_ethos_bl_uk_598785
| doctoral_students = [[Elliott H. Lieb]]<br />[[Monica Olvera de la Cruz]]<br />[[Michael Cates]]<br />[[Nigel Goldenfeld]]<br/>[[Tanniemola Liverpool]]
| known_for =[[path integral formulation]]<br /> [[polymer physics]]<br />[[spin glass]]<br />[[granular material]]
| prizes = [[Maxwell Medal and Prize]] (1974)<br />[[Davy Medal]] (1984)<br />[[Boltzmann medal]] (1995)<br />[[Royal Medal]] (2001)<br />[[Dirac Medal (ICTP)|Dirac Medal]] (2005)
}}

'''Sir Samuel Frederick Edwards''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|FRS|FLSW}} (1 February 1928 – 7 May 2015) was a [[Welsh people|Welsh]] [[physicist]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Goldenfeld|first=Nigel|date=23 December 2015|title=Samuel Frederick Edwards: Founder of modern polymer and soft matter theory|journal=[[Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA|Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]]|volume=113|issue=1|pages=10&ndash;11|doi=10.1073/pnas.1523001113|pmc=4711878|pmid=26699498|bibcode=2016PNAS..113...10G|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Grauniad">{{Cite news |last=Donald |first=Athene |title=The birth of soft matter physics, the physics of the everyday |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=12 May 2015 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2015/may/12/the-birth-of-soft-matter-physics-the-physics-of-the-everyday}}</ref>
The [[Sam Edwards Medal and Prize]] is named in his honour.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iop.org/about/awards/subject/edwards/page_72444.html |title=Sam Edwards Medal and Prize |publisher=Institute of Physics |accessdate=23 December 2019}}</ref>

==Early life and studies==
Edwards was born on 1 February 1928 in [[Swansea]], Wales, the son of Richard and Mary Jane Edwards.
He was educated at the [[Bishop Gore School]], Swansea, and [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]], the [[University of Manchester]], and at [[Harvard University]], in the [[United States]].<ref name="Grauniad"/> He wrote his thesis under [[Julian Schwinger]] on the structure of the electron, and subsequently developed the functional integral form of field theory.

==Academic research==
[[File:Staircase L Gonville & Caius.jpg|thumb|Edwards's name on Staircase L at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge in 2010.]]
Edwards's work in [[condensed matter physics]] started in 1958 with a paper<ref group=pubs name=1958pub/> which showed that statistical properties of disordered systems (glasses, gels etc.) could be described by the [[Feynman diagram]] and [[path integral formulation|path integral]] methods invented in quantum field theory. During the following 35 years Edwards worked in the theoretical study of complex materials, such as polymers, gels, colloids and similar systems.  His paper<ref group=pubs name=1965pub/> came in 1965 which "in one stroke founded the modern quantitative understanding of polymer matter."<ref name=":0" /> [[Pierre-Gilles de Gennes]] extended Edwards's 1965 work, ultimately leading to de Gennes's [[List of Nobel laureates in Physics|1991 Nobel Prize in Physics]].<ref name=":0" />

Edwards invented what is known as the [[replica trick]] or replica method to evaluate the disorder-averaged [[Free energy principle|free energy]] of glassy systems, which has been successfully applied to [[spin glass]] and to [[amorphous solids]]. His  1971 paper<ref>Sam Edwards (1971), Statistical mechanics of rubber. In ''Polymer networks: structural and mechanical properties'', (eds A. J. Chompff & S. Newman). New York: Plenum Press,  ISBN 978-1-4757-6210-5.</ref> was the first paper to introduce the [[replica trick]] and Edwards' work led ultimately to [[Giorgio Parisi]]'s [[List of Nobel laureates in Physics|2021 Nobel Prize in Physics]].

The Doi-Edwards theory of polymer melt [[viscoelasticity]] originated from an initial publication of Edwards in 1967,<ref group=pubs name=1967pub/> was expanded upon by de Gennes in 1971, and was subsequently formalized through a series of publications between Edwards and [[Masao Doi]] in the late 1970s.<ref name=":0" />

== Administrative activities and professional recognition ==
He was Chairman of the Science Research Council 1973-1977 and between 1984 and 1995 was [[Cavendish Professor of Physics]] at [[Cambridge University]].  He was a member of the Board of Sponsors of The [[Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]] and Past President of Cambridge Society for the Application of Research.

Edwards was knighted in 1975. Awards presented to him include the [[Davy Medal]] (1984) and the [[Royal Medal]] (2001) of the [[Royal Society]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Warner|first=Mark|date=2017-02-22|title=Sir Sam Edwards. 1 February 1928 – 7 July 2015|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society|language=en|volume=63|pages=243–271|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2016.0028|issn=0080-4606|doi-access=free}}</ref> the [[Boltzmann medal]] of the [[International Union of Pure and Applied Physics]] (1995),<ref>{{citation
 |title       = Samuel Edwards: Boltzmann Medallist 1995
 |publisher   = IUPAP Commission on Statistical Physics
 |url         = http://iupap.cii.fc.ul.pt/Boltz_Award/BA1995.html
 |access-date  = 2013-02-20
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20131017061732/http://iupap.cii.fc.ul.pt/Boltz_Award/BA1995.html
 |archive-date = 17 October 2013}}</ref> and the [[Dirac Medal (ICTP)|Dirac Medal]] of the [[International Centre for Theoretical Physics]] (2005). He was also a Founding Fellow of the [[Learned Society of Wales]] and he held an honorary degree (Doctor of Science) from the University of Bath (1978).

==Personal life==
In 1953 Edwards married Merriell E.M. Bland, with whom he had three daughters and a son. His relaxations were gardening and chamber music.
Edwards died in [[Cambridge]] on 7 May 2015.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary Notice|url=http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2014-15/weekly/6388/section8.shtml|accessdate=9 June 2015|agency=Cambridge University Reporter|issue=6388|date=28 May 2015}}</ref>

== Publications ==
{{Reflist|group=pubs|refs=<ref name=1958pub>{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=S.F. |title=A new method for the evaluation of electric conductivity in metals |journal=[[Philosophical Magazine]] |year=1958 |volume=3 |pages=1020&ndash;31 |url=http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-852853-1.pdf |doi=10.1080/14786435808243244 |bibcode=1958PMag....3.1020E |issue=33 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929111346/http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-852853-1.pdf |archive-date=29 September 2007}}</ref>
<ref name=1965pub>{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=S.F. |title=The statistical mechanics of polymers with excluded volume |journal=[[Proc. Phys. Soc.|Proceedings of the Physical Society]] |volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=613–624 |doi=10.1088/0370-1328/85/4/301 |bibcode=1965PPS....85..613E |year=1965 }}</ref>
<ref name=1967pub>{{cite journal |last=Edwards |first=S.F. |title=The statistical mechanics of polymerized material |journal=[[Proc. Phys. Soc.|Proceedings of the Physical Society]] |volume=92 |issue=1 |pages=9&ndash;16 |doi=10.1088/0370-1328/92/1/303|bibcode=1967PPS....92....9E |year=1967 }}</ref>
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|author = Paul M. Goldbart and [[Nigel Goldenfeld]], David Sherrington (eds.)| title = Stealing the gold: a celebration of the pioneering physics of Sam Edwards | year = 2004 | location = Oxford | publisher = OUP | isbn = 0-19-852853-1| bibcode = 2005stgo.book.....G }}
*{{Cite journal|last=Sherwood|first=Martin|date=22 November 1973|title=A man for difficult problems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0j5BwK6YigYC&pg=PA538|journal=New Scientist|volume=60|issue=873|pages=538&ndash;9|access-date=2016-07-11|quote=Professor Sam Edwards, who recently became chairman of the Science Research Council, describes himself as someone who has always had a taste for difficult problems.  Recently, he talked to Martin Sherwood about some of the problems he has tackled in chemistry and physics, and some of those he will now have to tackle as a full-time administrator.|via=Google Books}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
{{FRS 1966}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Samuel Frederick}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:2015 deaths]]
[[Category:Welsh physicists]]
[[Category:Scientists from Swansea]]
[[Category:People educated at Bishop Gore School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Cavendish Professors of Physics]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Physics education in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Royal Medal winners]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales]]
[[Category:Presidents of the British Science Association]]
[[Category:Maxwell Medal and Prize recipients]]
[[Category:20th-century British physicists]]
[[Category:20th-century Welsh scientists]]
[[Category:John Humphrey Plummer Professors]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Cambridge Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Boltzmann Medal]]