RIP Roger Barrett 25.01.2025

I heard from a colleague today the sad news of the death of Roger Barrett on 25^th January 2025.  When I arrived at the University of Surrey in 2000 Roger was I think, by that time, already an emeritus member of staff, but still active, and preent in the Department. In this post from last month, I included a picture taken at a 2003 event we held at Surrey, and it features Roger:

Roger is second from the left in the front row, sitting between Qiang Zhao (now at Beijing Institute for High Energy Physics) and Jim Al-Khalili, himself now an emeritus professor. 

Other more qualified people will hopefully write a bit more of a biographical reminiscence of Roger.  His scientific interests when I knew him were in higher energy physics than I worked in, but I know his background was in the lower-energy nuclear physics common to the Surrey group.  He co-authored a book with Daphne Jackson on "Nuclear Sizes and Structure", published by Oxford University Press.  Like all other member of the nuclear group at Surrey, I was gifted a copy of this book, many others of which graced the shelves of our offices.  Here I am pretending to read it, but really posing for a photo of me  holding it:

 

 

After Roger stopped coming into the Department I'd often bump into him in the town Waitrose where we both would go to get a copy of the Guardian and a cup of coffee, and I used to catch up with him, passing on news of the Department.  I hadn't bumped into him for a few years now, and I understand his health had declined in the years leading up to his death.