Joe Vinen

William Frank Vinen, called Joe, (* February 15, 1930 ) is a British physicist who deals with superfluid, superconductors, two-dimensional solid-state electronic systems and hydrodynamics. He is a professor at the University of Birmingham.

Vinen attended until 1948 the Watford Grammar School, was 1947/49 with the Royal Air Force and studied from 1949 at the University of Cambridge (Clare College) with a bachelor's degree in 1952, the Master's degree in physics in 1955 and his doctorate in 1956. He was to 1958 research Fellow at Clare College and University demonstrator in 1958 and Fellow of Pembroke College. In 1962 he became a professor at the University of Birmingham, where he was professor from 1973 Poynting and 1973-1981 the physics faculty initiated. In 1997 he retired.

He examined the behavior of vortex lines in liquid helium and quantized flux lines in type 2 superconductors investigated the superfluid phase transition of liquid helium with light scattering and high-resolution spectroscopy and studied two-dimensional systems of electrons and ions. He also studied classical and quantum turbulence.

In 2005 he received the Faraday Medal ( IOP) for outstanding contributions to superconductors and superfluids, especially for the observation and measurement of quantized vortices in superfluid helium, the first direct confirmation of the applicability of quantum mechanics to macroscopic bodies. 1980 he received the Rumford Medal, 1978 Holweck Medal, 1963 Simon Memorial Prize of the Institute of Physics ( IOP) and 2005, the Guthrie Medal of the IOP.

In 1973 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and stands in front of the Education Committee. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (1980) and in 2003 its Honorary Fellow. In 2008 he was made an honorary Doctor of Charles University in Prague. He is a member of the Academia Europaea.

He was on the Steering Committee of University of Coventry and is its honorary Fellow for life. He is also a Steering Committee of the Open University.

He has been married since 1960 and has a son and a daughter.