Paul A. Chatterton (1935-1991)
 
 
Paul A. Chatterton graduated from the University of Liverpool with BSc and PhD degrees. He was for a time a member of staff at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, where he worked on high voltage equipment and charged particle beam optics, and subsequently at the SERC Rutherford High Energy Laboratory. He returned to the University of Liverpool in 1966 as a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics.  He made important contributions to the whole area of vacuum breakdown and switchgear and was promoted to a Senior lectureship in 1972 and to a Readership in 1980. At various times he acted as a consultant to the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, GEC Hirst Research Centre and GE's R&D Center in the USA.

In the 1980s Paul's research interest turned to the processing of materials using RF plasmas and, in particular, to the diagnostics employed for monitoring the plasma environment. He help organize an IEE Summer School at Liverpool in 1986 on Plasma Processing.  With colleagues from universities and industry he worked on Langmuir probe and mass-spectrometric studies of plasmas, and even in January 1991 he gave a seminar at an IOP meeting. His last publication, a textbook entitled "EMC: Electromagnetic Theory the Practical Design", co-authored by M. A. Houlden, was published in December 1991.

Throughout his carrier, Paul maintained a passionate involvement with physics in vacuum. His particular interest centered on the problem of how to insulate high voltages, and in this context he published many widely cited scientific papers dealing with the fundamental aspects of electron emission and microparticle phenomena. He was a contributor to the First ISDEIV in 1964 at MIT.  He had been a member of the Permanent International Scientific Committee since 1970 and served as his Chairman for the period 1980-1986. Without doubt, the sustained energy and infectious enthusiasm of Paul chatterton played a very large part in the growing success of ISDEIV. This commitment was never more clearly demonstrated in his selfless support of the early Symposia held in Paris (1968), Waterloo (1970), and Swansea (1974).

Paul held strong views on the role of the professional scientist / engineer in modern society.  He was an active member of several professional institutions. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and served on its Plasma Physics Committee. He was also a Fellow of the Institution of the Institute of Electrical Engineers and served as a member, and later as Chairman of its professional group S3 ("Ionized Gases and Vacuum"). He was also a Senior Member of IEEE.
 

The Chatterton Young Investigator Award is established by the International Symposium on Discharges and Electrical Insulation in Vacuum (ISDEIV) in honor of the late Paul Chatterton.
 
 

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