Simon Hooker named first Michael Baker Tutor in Physics
The College is delighted to announce that Professor Simon Hooker has been named as the first Michael Baker Tutor in Physics. The title was conferred by Merton’s Governing Body at the end of Hilary term, following the successful completion of an appeal to endow permanently one of our teaching posts in Physics. The College is grateful to all alumni and friends who supported this campaign, collectively raising £1 million to provide long-term financial backing and preserve the post for future generations.
Professor Hooker is our longest-serving Tutor in Physics and the successor to our first Fellow in this subject, Michael Baker, whom the appeal sought to commemorate. He holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Physics from Exeter College, Oxford, which were awarded in 1986 and 1990 respectively. Following a period of post-doctoral work at Stanford University, Professor Hooker returned to the UK in 1996 to take up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He joined Merton as a Tutor in 2003 and was made a Professor of Atomic and Laser Physics at the University of Oxford in 2008.
Alongside teaching, Professor Hooker’s research focuses on exploring the applications which arise from the interaction of high-intensity laser pulses with matter. He works particularly on laser-driven plasma accelerators and their applications. He is internationally renowned and has received prestigious awards for his work in plasma physics, namely the 2010 John Dawson Award and the 2020 Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and Prize. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Optical Society of America and has co-authored an undergraduate textbook on laser physics, published by Oxford University Press.
Professor Hooker commented:
"It is an honour to be named the first Michael Baker Tutor in Physics. On behalf of the Merton Physics team, I would like to extend sincere thanks to all alumni and friends who have helped to protect our excellence in teaching and research for the future. Michael Baker did so much to establish and build the Merton Physics School. The Tutorship post in his name will be a permanent memorial to his many contributions to Physics and to the College."
