Sir Samuel Frederick Edwards (1 February 1928 – 7 May 2015) was a Welsh physicist.
The Sam Edwards Medal and Prize is named in his honour.
Early life and studies
Edwards was born on 1 February 1928 in Swansea, Wales, the son of Richard and Mary Jane Edwards.
He was educated at the Bishop Gore School, Swansea, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, the University of Manchester, and at Harvard University, in the United States. was the first paper to introduce the replica trick and Edwards' work led ultimately to Giorgio Parisi's 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The Doi-Edwards theory of polymer melt viscoelasticity originated from an initial publication of Edwards in 1967, the Boltzmann medal of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (1995), and the Dirac Medal of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (2005). He was also a Founding Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales and he held an honorary degree (Doctor of Science) from the University of Bath (1978).
Personal life
In 1953 Edwards married Merriell E.M. Bland, with whom he had three daughters and a son. His relaxations were gardening and chamber music.
Edwards died in Cambridge on 7 May 2015.