Frederick Lindemann was an exceptional person who achieved a position of influence in both the scientific and political worlds.He was born in Devon in 1886 into a reasonably wealthy family. His mother was American and his father was German, and at the age of 14 Lindemann was sent to Germany to be educated, where in due course he obtained his doctorate from the University of Berlin.

In 1919, aged just 33, Lindemann was appointed Dr Lees Professor of Experimental Philosophy and head of the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford University. He immediately set about rebuilding the lab’s research, appointing staff from elsewhere in Britain and arranging for Francis Simon and later Nicholas Kurti, Kurt Mendelssohn, Heinrich Kuhn, and Heinz and Fritz London to leave Germany and come to Oxford.

Lindemann was a close friend of Winston Churchill, visiting him frequently and also strongly supporting his campaign for rearmament in the 1930s. When Churchill became a member of the government in 1939 and Prime Minister the following year, Lindemann became his scientific advisor. This role, however, steadily expanded to include giving advice on economics and other matters. In 1941 he became a member of the House of Lords (as Lord Cherwell) and joined the cabinet as Paymaster-General.

Prof by Adrian Fort is a very enjoyable read because it describes the complex and varied career of this distinguished but little known man. The book reveals the many contradictions in Lindemann’s character. He spent 13 undoubtedly happy years in Germany, carrying out physics research and enjoying his social life. Yet later he became a fervent supporter of Churchill in his campaign against appeasement.

Fort faithfully captures these contradictions and explains them and their ramifications through the life of Lindemann. As a physicist, I would have liked to have read more about his science in Germany and at Oxford, but what we are told is largely correct — a considerable tribute to a non-scientist writing about the origins of quantum mechanics. There is also comparatively little about the changes in the Clarendon Laboratory that Lindemann helped bring about.

The world has now changed and we are all experts in our narrow fields of interest. It is unlikely that a professor of experimental philosophy (physics) will again become an expert in economics, Paymaster-General and a member of the cabinet. This book is a very enjoyable account of a little studied but enormously interesting man, and it deserves to be read widely.

In the July issue of Physics WorldRoger Cowley, Dr Lees Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Oxford University, reviews this book in full.