The Queen's College Record 2023

or on the phone, with those typically North Country words “Ay oop lad”. We did so
lifelong, even when he called me to say goodbye a few days before he died. Ay oop
lad, farewell, and thank you.
Stewart Jones KC and Kenneth Prysor-Jones (Modern Languages, 1963)
Obituaries
MICHAEL LEA
Michael went to Kendal Grammar school and in 1961
obtained a Hastings Scholarship to The Queen’s College
to read Physics. From an early age he went fell walking
and rock climbing in the Lake District and here he joined
and helped to run the mountaineering society. He fell off
a mountain in Norway while doing a first ascent and this
put an end to his rock climbing but his love of fell walking
continued throughout his life.
On graduation in 1964 he moved back north to be near his beloved Lake District
and became one of the first Physics postgraduates at the then ‘new’ University
of Lancaster where he obtained a PhD – Ultrasonic Attenuation in Normal and
Superconducting Zinc. He built his first Low Temperature laboratory in the city; his
second on the new campus out at Bailrigg; a third at Bedford College, University
of London; and a fourth at Royal Holloway, University of London where he was
appointed Professor of Physics.
His main research interests continued to be in experimental Low Temperature
Physics and he published over 150 research papers on Metal and Superconductors;
Quantum Fluids; Cryogenic Techniques; Piezoelectrics and Semiconductors,
Particle and Dark Matter Detection; Two-dimensional electrons and Quantum
Computing. His most recent paper ‘Ripplonic Lamb Shift for Electrons on Liquid
Helium’, was published in Phys.Rev.Lett. in 2017. He gave invited papers in many
countries including Japan, Canada, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, the USA, and Europe.
Colleagues in the UK and overseas have described him as ‘brilliant’, ‘remarkable’,
and a ‘wonderful individual’ and say that ‘through his important work on electrons
on helium, and associated international collaborations, he truly paved the way for
the current resurgence of the topic as a pathway to quantum computing’. Professor
Mark Dykman (University of Michigan) said ‘he has created a whole area of studies
in Physics that is admired and deeply respected by many people, and his work is
broadly cited. His work is fundamentally important, and everybody knows that’.
On retirement Michael became an Emeritus Professor of the University of London.
Back in 1964 Michael met his wife Katherine (Kate), one of the first undergraduates
at Lancaster University, and they married in 1966. Both developed a passion for
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