Born in Hamburg, Germany and educated at Wanganui Collegiate School and the University of Otago (New Zealand)
1954 - came to the University of Cambridge on a Shell Post-Graduate Scholarship to do his Ph.D. in physics (1956) as student of Sir Nevill Mott
1955 - Fellow of Clare College and
1976 - became a professor and took over as head of the theory group at the Cavendish Laboratory, a position that he held until his retirement in 1997
1974 - elected Fellow of the Royal Society