John Ziman - Biography

John Michael Ziman (16 May 1925 – 2 January 2005) was a physicist and a humanist who worked in the area of condensed matter physics. He was an outstanding spokesman for science, and an accomplished teacher and author.

John Ziman was born in Cambridge, England but moved to New Zealand with his family in childhood and obtained his early education at Hamilton and the University of Wellington. He obtained his PhD from Balliol College, Oxford and did his early research on the theory of electrons in liquid metals at University of Cambridge.

In 1964 he was appointed professor of theoretical physics at University of Bristol, where he wrote his Elements Of Advanced Quantum Theory (1969), a slender volume (a mere 284 pp.), which still gives an excellent account of the rudiments of quantum field theory, and this with a valuable and elementary condensed matter slant. During this period, his interests shifted towards the philosophy of science. He argued ardently about the social dimension of science, and the social responsibility of scientists in numerous essays and books.

He married twice, to Rosemary Dixon in 1951 and secondly to Joan Solomon and was survived by his second wife and three of his four children.

Selected books authored by Ziman

• An Introduction to Science Studies: The Philosophical and Social Aspects of Science and Technology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, ISBN 0-521-34680-0