John Sharpe MSc, PhD, FIET, FIMechE 1939 - 2024
Obituary provided by friend Dr Martin Salzer with help from family, Mike Anson and Dr K V Siva.
John was born in 1939. Following schooling, mainly in Cambridge, he was apprenticed at Marshalls in Cambridge. On completion of his apprenticeship in 1960, he joined the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, where he participated in the design of the early Scanning Electron Microscopes. An interest in control systems resulted from his work on the mechanical positioning systems for the specimens.
Following a meeting with Professor John Flavell Coales, in 1963 John became Coales’ personal assistant. Coales had been involved in the development of naval radar during WWII, had subsequently joined Elliott Brothers (London) as research director, and in 1952 moved to Cambridge University Engineering Department. Coales would become President of the IEE (now IET) in 1971.
Coales assigned to John responsibility for commissioning an Elliott 405 digital computer - and keeping it running - a challenge as anyone who remembers the earliest generations of computers will know. This subsequently led to John undertaking an MSc, followed by a PhD on Optimisation of Mechanical System Parameters using Directly Measured Parameter Influence Coefficients.
After Cambridge, John joined the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, London, where he was responsible for the design, development and construction of scientific apparatus, instrumentation and pilot process plants. Using the concepts underlying his PhD thesis, he was able to identify parameters critical to the production or modification of equipment to produce high precision results.
He was responsible for equipment supporting wide-ranging research programmes. By way of example, he collaborated with Mike Anson on designing and constructing precision optical machines for measuring optical properties, such as fluorescence and polarisation emission from macromolecules undergoing chemical reactions.
In 1976, John moved on to Queen Mary College, London, where he was responsible for teaching Engineering Design, Machine Elements, System Analysis and Dynamics. With Professor Janota, John established the first dual discipline four-year MEng degrees in the UK in 1978, an achievement of which he was particularly proud. He supervised PhD research work at Queen Mary College into Bilateral Control (manipulation with force reflecting hand controllers to provide a sense of feeling to operators) of remote manipulators. Bond graphs, a methodology favoured by John throughout his life, were used extensively in the design and analysis of these complex design solutions.
Following on from research dating back to 1976, John was founder and Technical Director of Compact Power Ltd, designing and developing pioneering pyrolysis and gasification processes. This culminated in a prototype plant at Avonmouth capable of reliably processing a wide range of challenging wastes.
In 1992, John became Professor of Engineering Design and Director of Engineering at the University of Lancaster, although he remained involved with Queen Mary College. At Lancaster, he was responsible for research into the conceptual design process used for the design of multi-disciplinary products and systems.
Whilst at Cambridge, John had spearheaded efforts to preserve the unusual steam pumping engines at the City Sewage Works – an endeavour that resulted in the formation of both the Cambridge Society for Industrial Archaeology and the Cambridge Museum of Technology. Both organisations continue to this day. He was also involved with a number of heritage railways. For example, a Ravensglass and Eskdale locomotive was modified with a two-stage combustion system to John’s design which reduced running costs and minimised smoke.
Following retirement from academia, John moved to Somerset and became County Councillor for South Petherton from 2001-2009, where many of the numerous committees in which he was involved were aligned with his technical interests. He is survived by his wife, Linda and, from a previous marriage, son Ian and daughters Alison and Judith.