Thomas Charles Buckland McLeish

Thomas Charles Buckland McLeish, FRS, FRSC (born 1962) is a theoretical physicist whose work is renowned for increasing our understanding of the properties of soft matter. This is matter that can be easily changed by stress – including liquids, foams and biological materials. He was Professor in the Durham University Department of Physics and Director of the Durham Centre for Soft Matter, a multidisciplinary team that works across physics, chemistry, mathematics and engineering. He is now the first Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of York.

McLeish was born on 1 May 1962. He was educated at Sevenoaks School in Kent and Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 and a PhD in 1987 for research on fluid dynamics.

McLeish began his academic career as a lecturer in physics at the University of Sheffield (1989 to 1993). He then moved to the University of Leeds, where he was Professor of Polymer Physics between 1993 and 2008. Since 2008, he has been Professor of Physics at the University of Durham. He was additionally Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research between 2008 and 2014. In February 2018,he moved to the University of York to take up the newly created Chair in Natural Philosophy.

Research

Although McLeish's work is mostly theoretical, he also works closely with those performing experiments and in industry. He has made significant advances in modelling the structure and properties of complex entangled molecules, blends of substances that don't usually mix (multiphasic liquids like oil and water) see reptation and crazing. This allows us to more easily predict complex fluid behaviour and processing in an industrial setting. Since 2000 he has increasingly worked on biological physics: applying soft matter physics to self-assembly of protein fibrils, protein fluctuation dynamics and its role in allosteric signalling, and statistical mechanics approaches to evolution. As of 2015 he has published around 200 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals.

• The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art (2019) OXFORD University Press, ISBN 9780198797999
• Soft Matter – An Emergent Interdisciplinary Science of Emergent Entities, Chapter 20 in The Routledge Handbook of Emergence,(eds.) (2019) LONDON: Routledge, ISBN 9781315675213

• The Science and Religion Delusion: Towards a Theology of Science', in Knowing Creation - Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology and Science Eds.'(2018) Zondervan Academic, ISBN 9780310536130

In 1984, McLeish married Julie Elizabeth King. Together they have four children: two sons and two daughters.

McLeish's other interests include historical studies of medieval science, and he is a member of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies at Durham. Since 1993 he has been a lay preacher in the Anglican Church, delivering sermons at St Michael le Belfrey, York. In 2014 he published a book on the relationship between religion and science called Faith and Wisdom in Science.

McLeish was made a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) in 2003, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2008. In 2011, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), the United Kingdom's national academy of the sciences. In 2007 McLeish was awarded the Weissenberg medal by the European Society of Rheology. This is awarded to Rheologists conducting research in Europe for outstanding, long-term achievements.McLeish also received the Society of Rheology Bingham Medal in 2010. Mcleish's most recent honor is the Lanfranc Medal from the Archbishop of Canterbury which he received in 2018.