Career
John Pendry was born in Manchester, where his father was an oil representative, and took a degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge after which he was appointed as a research fellow at Downing College between 1969 and 1975. He spent time at Bell Labs in 1972-3 and was head of the theory group at the SERC Daresbury Laboratory from 1975 to 1981, when he was appointed to the chair in theoretical physics at Imperial College, London where he stayed for the rest of his career. Preferring administration to teaching, he was Dean of the Royal College of Science from 1993-6, head of the Physics Department from 1998-2001 and Principal of the Faculty of Physical Sciences 2001–2. He has authored over 300 research papers and encouraged many experimental inititatives.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984 and in 2004 he was knighted in the Birthday Honours. In 2008, an issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter was dedicated to him in honour of his 65th birthday.
He is married to Pat, a mathematician he met at Cambridge who became a tax inspector. They have no children. His hobbies include playing the piano.
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