Dr. Eric Finch
Fellow Emeritus, Physics
Biography
Dr Finch has been a member since 1972 of the lecturing staff of the Physics Department, Trinity College Dublin - the last person to be appointed by E.T.S. Walton before he retired.
He obtained both his primary Physics degree and his doctorate at Oxford University, then did postdoctoral work at Durham University in north-eastern England.
His research is primarily into the detection of nuclear radiation - the physics of radiation detectors, and radioactivity in the environment. He has carried out research in laboratories in the UK, France and Germany as well as at Trinity. Publications include a jointly-authored textbook on radiation detectors. He has also worked in the area of radiological protection, and for five years was the Radiological Protection Officer for Trinity College.
He has lectured to physics undergraduates on topics such as nuclear physics, radiation detection and other instrumentation, semiconductor devices, and electronics. He has also lectured on properties of matter, waves, light and sound to biology, earth sciences and pharmacy students, and on acoustics to music students. He has held overall responsibility for physics laboratory classes for first year students, and more recently for second year students. He was a College tutor for ten years.
A Fellow of the Institute of Physics, he has been on several of their committees in Ireland and the UK. He is currently Chairman of the National Commission for the Teaching of Physics, attached to the Institute of Physics in Ireland. Both the Institute and the Royal Irish Academy have published articles of his on the life and work of E.T.S. Walton.
Outside physics, he has sung in several chamber choirs with his wife, and has travelled with them through Europe and also to New Zealand.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
G A Gunning, M Murray, S C Long, M J Foley and E C Finch, Inter-comparison of radon detectors for one to four week measurement periods, Journal of Radiological Protection, 36, (1), 2016, p104 - 116
G.A. Gunning, D.A. Pollard and E.C. Finch, An outdoor radon survey and minimizing the uncertainties in low level measurements using CR-39 detectors, Journal of Radiological Protection, 34, (2), 2014, p457 - 467
C. Organo, E.M. Lee, G. Menezes and E.C. Finch, Investigation of occupational radiation exposures to NORM at an Irish peat-fired power station and potential use of peat fly ash by the construction industry, Journal of Radiological Protection, 25, (4), 2005, p461 - 474
E.M. Lee, G. Menezes and E.C. Finch, Natural Radioactivity in Building Materials in the Republic of Ireland, Health Physics, 86, (4), 2004, p378 - 383
E. M. Lee, G. Menezes and E.C. Finch, Assessment of Natural Radioactivity in Irish Building Materials, IRPA 11 Abstracts, IRPA 11 - 11th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association, Madrid, Spain, 23rd-28th May 2004, edited by Annie Sugier , IRPA, 2004, pp234-
C. Organo, E.M. Lee, G. Menezes and E.C. Finch, Occupational radiation exposures to NORM at an Irish peat-fired power station and potential implications of the use of peat fly ash by the construction industry, IRPA 11 Abstracts, IRPA 11 - 11th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association, Madrid, Spain, 23rd-28th May 2004, edited by Annie Sugier , IRPA, 2004, pp74-
Frederick Thomas Trouton, in Charles Mollan, William Davis and Brendan Finucane, Irish Innovators in Science and Technology, Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 2002, pp192 - 192, [E.C. Finch]
Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, in Charles Mollan, William Davis and Brendan Finucane, Irish Innovators in Science and Technology, Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 2002, pp239 - 240, [E.C. Finch]
Eric Finch and Denis Weaire, The Long Life of an Atom Splitter (an appreciation of E.T.S. Walton), Physics World, 8, (11), 1995, p62 - 63
C.F.G. Delaney and E.C. Finch, Radiation Detectors, Oxford, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1992, xii + 358pp
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Eric C Finch, E.T.S. Walton - Atom Splitter and Man of Peace, Dublin Historical Record, 60, (1), 2007, p111 - 123
Research Expertise
Recognition
Memberships
C.Sci., C.Phys., F.Inst.P.