My friend and colleague John Jefferson, who has died aged 75 of Parkinson’s disease, was a distinguished scientist and talented amateur musician. Coming from an unremarkable background, and overcoming early disadvantage, he produced several significant papers in theoretical physics.
John’s studies were wide-ranging and included high-temperature superconductors and the fundamental physics of quantum computers. He supervised numerous PhD students and postdoctoral fellows at the Defence, Evaluation and Research Agency (Dera), Malvern, and was a visiting professor at King’s College London, and Lancaster and Oxford universities.
