Professor Edward George Sydney Paige FRS (18 July 1930 – 20 February 2004), known as Ted Paige, was a British physicist and engineer. His main areas of research were semiconductor devices to improve radar, including work on surface acoustic waves, and optical techniques using programmable phase plates.
Early life and education Paige was an only child born and raised in Northiam, Sussex, where he developed a lifelong interest in ornithology. Paige was raised in “a thatched cottage, reputedly of sixteenth-century vintage, in Northiam, a village on the border between Kent and East Sussex.” Paige's father, in keeping with family tradition, worked for the railway, serving the stationmaster at the town's railway station. The family did not have running water until Paige was five years old, and did not have electricity until some time later. His parents “were encouraging and supportive but…had little contact with the world of learning or with intellectual pursuits.” An only child, Paige “developed a passion for bird watching, which he sustained throughout his life. He also “suffered periodically from chest complaints,” and his mother later told him that the doctor had lowered his fees for the family to make treatment affordable. Paige described this as “the source of his subsequent socialist leanings.” From 1935 to 1941, Paige attended Sandhurst primary school in Kent. He went on to Rye Grammar School, where he planned a career in the Navy. A member of the Sea Cadets, he expected to attend the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, Devon, after leaving school. He eventually decided, however, that military regimentation did not appeal to him. He “remained throughout his life of an agnostic disposition.” It was at Rye Grammar School that he developed an interest in science. He performed experiments on his own and created explosives. It was only at the suggestion of his headmaster, who recognized his gifts, that Paige, whose family had no history of higher education, stayed on into the sixth form. At first his scientific interests were focused on biology, but when the school hired a master, Leslie Elliott, to teach physics and chemistry, Paige was attracted to those subjects. His results on the test for a Higher School Certificate earned him a County Scholarship, allowing him to proceed to Reading University to read physics. During his undergraduate years (1949–52) Paige studied physics, chemistry and mathematics, earning a first-class honours degree in physics. He also earned a British Association for the Advancement of Science Exhibition. While he was an undergraduate, he held a summer job in an electronics factory. Paige proceeded to doctoral studies. His supervisor was Dr (later Sir) William Mitchell (FRS 1986). Indeed, Paige was the first doctoral student that Mitchell ever supervised. Their association developed into a decades-long collaboration and lifelong friendship. Paige's doctoral research was focused on radiation damage in quartz caused by X-rays and neutrons, and established that “optical absorption in the visible part of the spectrum was attributable to aluminium impurities.” Shortly after marrying, Paige received his PhD in 1955.
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