In Memoriam | Professor Peter Hill, Life Member

It is with great regret that we report that our colleague, Professor Peter Hill, died on September 23rd 2024 from Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, leaving a family comprising his wife, Leonora, and two children, with a further three children from his first marriage.

Peter, who was born in 1934, enjoyed a distinguished career in digital communications and information technology, spanning over nearly 40 years. He graduated with First Class Honours in Electrical Engineering from Birmingham University in 1956, and was awarded postgraduate scholarships by the BBC and the IEE. His PhD research on TV bandwidth compression was conducted at Imperial College London, under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Dennis Gabor.

He joined BBC Research Labs at Kingswood Warren in 1961, and in 1970 was appointed Professor of Electronics at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham (later to become the Defence Academy UK, Cranfield University in 1984). After his official retirement in 2000 as Emeritus Professor he continued to work as a consultant in Information Systems Engineering at Cranfield for over a decade.

Peter was an active member of the IEEE Life Members Committee in the UK & Ireland Section, and was mainly responsible for enabling the award of an IEEE Milestone plaque to GCHQ in 2014 for their inventions in Public Key Cryptography. He was an authority in the history of digital communications and was always ready to produce amusing stories at the lunch table about the famous people he had known and worked with. Learning about his professional and personal interests, including a deep love of classical music, will have left lasting memories for those who were privileged to work with him.

Brian Harrington,
Chair of the UK & Ireland Life Members Committee