Cyril Domb

He was married to Shirley Galinsky since 1957 and the couple had six children.

He lived a long life during which he contributed a lot to science and religion through his experiments, teachings and writings. He died of natural causes in 2012 at the age of 91.

He was born in North London into a Hasidic Jewish family. His father Yoel was from Warsaw while his mother Sarah was of Polish origin. At birth he was given the Hebrew name of Yechiel.

From a young age he was educated in classical Jewish studies and he also attended Torah classes in a synagogue. He was also deeply inspired by his grandparents who were very religious.

He attended Hackney Downs secondary school where he excelled in mathematics. His teacher F.J. Swann recognized his genius and helped him by providing advanced books in mathematics. It was his teacher who motivated him to try for a scholarship to Cambridge.

He was awarded a fellowship at Pembroke where he joined in October 1938. He graduated in 1941 with a degree in mathematics.

After his graduation he joined the Admiralty Signal Establishment in Portsmouth as part of the research group on radar. Till then the radar systems could determine the approaching of enemy aircraft, but could not indicate their height. Domb and his group developed a method that could determine the height as well.

He decided to continue his studies and joined the mathematics department of Cambridge; by now theoretical physics was also part of the department. He immersed himself in research, starting with the statistics of particle counters.

During his time at Pembroke he became very interested in lattice dynamics and statistical mechanics. Fred Hoyle had become the supervisor of his PhD dissertation. Domb earned his PhD in 1949 with his doctoral thesis on "Order-Disorder Statistics".

He helped found the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists in the late 1940s. The Organization is devoted to integrate the scientific community with the framework of Orthodox Jewish tradition. It serves as a meeting ground for intellectual and religious people.

He became a university lecturer in mathematics at Cambridge University in 1952 and served there till 1954 when he left the position to join the King’s College, London, as a professor of theoretical physics in 1954. He remained there till 1981.

Along with Melville S. Green and Joel Lebowitz, he edited the 20-volume series of ‘Phase transitions and critical phenomena’. This series is considered one of the most authoritative series on the topic.