Charles Bruce

Charles Edward Rhodes Bruce (C.E.R. Bruce) (19 Apr 1902 in Shettleston – 30 Dec 1979) was a Scottish electrical engineer and amateur astrophysicist. Education and career Bruce was the son of a tailor. His family moved soon after his birth from Glasgow to Newport-on-Tay, where he went to primary school. At the age of 14, he went to Dundee to be educated at the High School of Dundee. He then matriculated at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated MA and BSc in 1924 with First Class Honours in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He then started training at the Moray House Teachers Training College, and was offered teaching positions at the High School of Dundee and Daniel Stewart's College, where he had carried out his practical teacher training; instead, he joined the Electrical Research Association (now ERA Technology Ltd) in Leatherhead, England, on the recommendation of his former professor, E. T. Whittaker. Bruce was elected as a fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1946 and of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1947. In 1952, he submitted his papers on electrical discharges to Edinburgh University and was subsequently awarded a Doctorate of Science in 1953.