Nichol Peacock, who was born in Darvel in February, 1931, became a renowned nuclear fusion scientist best known for his work on confirming Russian claims that they could produce fusion energy.
Peacock led a team of British experts on the trip to Russia in 1969 where they discovered the Soviet’s ‘tokamak’ theory process worked and could produce immense energy.
The tokamak, which uses magnetism and hot plasma to produce fusion energy, continues to be the main line of fusion energy research to this day.
Peacock was the son of a marine engine fitter and a lace weaver from Darvel and attended school in Darvel and later Kilmarnock Academy. At the University of Glasgow he studied physics.
He won international acclaim and several awards.
From the 1970s until his retirement in 1996, Peacock published more than 100 scientific papers with colleagues and PhD students as co-authors. He was awarded the Civil Service merit appointment in 1974.
He won a research fellowship in the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science in 1985.
In 1994 he was awarded an honorary professorship at Queen's University, Belfast and the chairmanship of the International Subcommittee on Atomic and Molecular Data for Fusion.
He is survived by his wife Maureen and two daughters, Fiona and Lindsay.