University of Bristol - Notable People

Notable People

Bristol is associated with 11 Nobel Laureates, and current academics include 18 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 10 Fellows of the British Academy, 13 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering and 31 Fellows of the Royal Society.

• Sir Michael Berry, knighted in 1996, one of the discoverers of quantum mechanics' 'geometric phase'
• John Rarity who, in 2001, set a then world-record 1.9 km range for free-space secure key exchange using quantum cryptography
• David May, founder of XMOS and lead architect for the transputer
• Mark Horton, a British maritime and historical archaeologist and one of the presenters of the BBC's Coast television series

Patricia Broadfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire, and Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick both were previously faculty at Bristol. Anthony Epstein, co-discoverer of the Epstein-Barr virus, was Professor of Pathology at the University from 1968–1982. Historical academics include Sir John Lennard-Jones, discoverer of the Lennard-Jones potential in physics and Alfred Marshall, one of the University College's Principals and influential economist in the latter part of the 19th century. Rohit Parikh lectured in the mathematics department from 1965 to 1967, as did Brian Rotman for twenty years.

University of Bristol is associated with 2 Ig Nobel Prizes. Sir Michael Berry shared the award (with Andre Geim, a Nobel Laureate) for using magnets to levitate a frog. Professor Gareth Jones also shared an Ig Nobel prize for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats.