Thomas Charles Buckland McLeish

Academic career 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.

In February 2018, McLeish moved to the University of York to take up the newly created Chair in Natural Philosophy.

Research Although McLeish's work was mostly theoretical, he also worked closely with those performing experiments and in industry. He 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 complex fluid behaviour and processing in an industrial setting to be more easily predicted. In 2014, he published a book on the relationship between religion and science called Faith and Wisdom in Science.

McLeish died on 27 February 2023, at the age of 60. A service of memorial and thanksgiving was held at York Minster Cathedral on 27 April 2023, a recording of which is available on the cathedral's YouTube channel.

Honours 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 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's Bingham Medal in 2010.

In 2017, McLeish received the Sam Edwards Medal and Prize for "his sustained and outstanding contributions to the fields of molecular rheology, macromolecular biophysics and self-assembly".

In 2018, McLeish was awarded the Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for his record as one of the most outstanding scientists of his generation, and the leading contemporary lay Anglican voice in the dialogue of science and faith".

McLeish gave the 2021 Boyle Lecture (International Society for Science and Religion, ISSR) entitled "Rediscovering Science as Contemplation." A recording is available on the ISSR's YouTube channel.

Selected publications The Poetry and Music of Science: Comparing Creativity in Science and Art (2019) OXFORD University Press, Soft Matter – An Emergent Interdisciplinary Science of Emergent Entities, Chapter 20 in The Routledge Handbook of Emergence, (eds.) (2019) LONDON: Routledge, The Science and Religion Delusion: Towards a Theology of Science, in Knowing Creation - Perspectives from Philosophy, Theology and Science Eds. (2018) Zondervan Academic, Faith and Wisdom in Science (2016) OXFORD University Press,