User:Moswento/John Sykes

John Bradbury Sykes (26 January 1929—3 September 1993) was a British lexicographer, translator, physicist and crossword enthusiast.

early life

 * Born in Jan 1929 in Folkestone, Kent
 * Father was a borough treasurer
 * DPhil thesis on theoretical solar physics

Career

 * Aere
 * When he moved there, involved in research on neutron migration
 * Interest in translation; ability to rapidly acquire a working knowledge of a foreign language
 * Translation
 * Appointed Head of translations office at Hartwell
 * Translated documents from many languages, particularly German and Russian
 * He was able to add new languages to his repertoire through a selective form of studying, which involved learning the basics of grammar and key physics-related vocabulary, but ignoring the language's spoken or literary forms
 * Was able to work quickly too - At a conference in 1967, translated the papers of seven Russian delegates in one night, ready for the first session the following morning
 * edited a technical translator's manual in 1971
 * Fellow of IoL, on its council for six years, editor of journal
 * 1986, chairman of newly-established Institute of Translation and Interpreting
 * Member of Translators' Association
 * Lexicography
 * At the beginning of 1970s, began working as a volunteer at weekends at the Oed, having become fascinated by etymologies when the editor of the oed supplement issued an appeal for help finding earlier citations for entries including "absolute magnitude"

Early life
Sykes was born in January 1929 in Folkestone, Kent. His parents were Stanley William Sykes and Eleanor Sykes Sykes (née Bradbury). He attended three different secondary schools, namely Wallasey Grammar School, Rochdale High School and St Lawrence College, Ramsgate.

Between 1947 and 1950, he read mathematics at Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class honours degree. He spent the next three years in postgraduate study at the University, initially at Balliol College, with the final year at Merton College. The title of his DPhil thesis was "Some problems in radiative transfer".

Career
After completing his PhD, Sykes began working as a theoretical physicist at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, near Harwell in Oxfordshire. Between 1956 and 1957, he spent nine months working at the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

From 1957, he served as the head of the Harwell Library's translation office, and became a key part of the translation team. He translated hundreds of scientific papers into English, mostly from Russian or German. According to the library's records, Sykes had a working knowledge of 15 languages. Generally, his ability was limited to reading the language and, with the exception of German and Dutch, he was not familiar with the languages in their spoken forms. When he learned a language, he focussed on understanding the basics of grammar and learning vocabulary related to physics. One of his most significant contributions was the translation from Russian of the ten-volume Course of Theoretical Physics by Landau and Lifshitz. In 1960, he became a fellow of the Institute of Linguists, later serving as the editor of the organisation's journal The Incorporated Linguist between 1980 and 1986.

In 1971, Sykes left his translation job to become the editor of the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

Crossword enthusiast
Sykes was a frequent winner of the Times National Crossword Championship, winning the tournament a total of 10 times.

Personal life
Sykes married Avril Barbara Hart in 1955; they had met while Sykes was studying as a postgraduate at Oxford. In addition to his passion for crosswords, Sykes enjoyed playing chess and bridge. He was also a member of the PEN Club, an association of writers.

He died from heart disease in September 1993 at his home in Oxford. At the time of his death, his wealth was assessed at £201,426.

This man

Other good sources:
 * 
 * ODNB
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