Alan Cook

Sir Alan Hugh Cook FRS (2 December 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an English physicist who specialised in geophysics and metrology. He worked at the University of Cambridge, National Physical Laboratory, and the University of Edinburgh. From 1977-79 Cook was President of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Early life and education Cook was born in Felsted, Essex in 1922. He was the eldest of the six children of Reginald Thomas Cook, a customs and excise officer, and his wife, Ethel, Saxon. His family were active in the Congregational church; Cook became a lifelong Christian.

He was initially educated at the village school at Felsted, then at West Leigh School in Leigh-on-Sea. From 1933 he attended at Westcliff High School for Boys, a grammar school in Westcliff-on-Sea. In 1939 he won a scholarship to attend university at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, beginning in 1940. As an undergraduate, he studied the natural sciences tripos, selecting courses in physical sciences, biological sciences, the history and philosophy of science and geology. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1943.

Cook graduated during World War Two, so was conscripted into military service. He was assigned to the Admiralty Signals Establishment (now part of the Admiralty Research Establishment) as a temporary experimental officer, in the field of electronic counter-measures.

When Bullard moved to the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at Teddington, Cook moved with him,

After retiring in 1990, he took a strong interest in the history of science. From 1996, he was the editor of Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, a history of science academic journal.

Publications Gravity and the earth (1969) Celestial Masers (1977) Gravitational experiments in the laboratory (1993) The observational foundations of physics (1994) Edmond Halley: charting the heavens and the seas (1998)