10 Facts About Henry Lipson

Henry Lipson's father was a steelworker at the Shotton works in Flintshire.

Henry Lipson graduated with First Class Honours in 1930 and stayed on to do research at Liverpool into crystal structures using x-ray diffraction.

Whilst at Liverpool, and without significant funding Beevers and Henry Lipson made most of their own equipment and invented an aid to calculation, Beevers-Henry Lipson Strips, which were widely used in the days before computers and which made their names well known within the field.

In 1936, Bragg invited Henry Lipson to move to Manchester, and he later followed Bragg in moves to Teddington and then, when Bragg became Cavendish Professor in 1937, to Cambridge.

In practical terms, Henry Lipson was in charge of the crystallography group in Cambridge, and took on a key role in nurturing young scientists.

Henry Lipson was awarded a Liverpool DSc in 1939 and a Cambridge MA in 1942, but he never really integrated into University of Cambridge life and he moved to the Manchester College of Technology in 1945 as head of the physics department.

Henry Lipson officially retired in 1977 but remained active in the department.

Henry Lipson had a strong belief in the social responsibility of scientists, was an active member of Scientists against Nuclear Arms and was twice president of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.

Henry Lipson authored a paper A Physicist Looks at Evolution which was widely quote-mined by creationists.

Henry Lipson was a critic of Darwinism but did not deny that species have evolved.