Joe Vinen

William Frank Vinen was a British physicist specialising in low temperature physics.

Career

Vinen was born on 15 February 1930, the son of Gilbert Vinen and his wife Olive Maud Vinen, née Roach. After Watford [Grammar School for Boys|Watford Grammar School], he attended Clare College, Cambridge, completing a doctorate in 1956. He was a research fellow there from 1955 to 1958, when he became a fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. In 1962, he was appointed to a chair of physics at Birmingham University. He was appointed to the Poynting Chair in 1973. He served as head of department from 1973 until 1981, and retired from the university in 1997.

Vinen was elected a List of [Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1973|Fellow of the Royal Society in 1973]. His certificate of election reads:
He was awarded the Rumford Medal in 1980 in "recognition of his discovery of the quantum of circulation in superfluid helium and his development of new techniques for precise measurements within liquid helium."

In 1960, Vinen married Susan-Mary Audrey Master; they had one son, Richard, and one daughter, Katie, and lived in Birmingham.