Heinz London (7.02.1907-3.08.1970) was an English physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1961). He was born in Bonn. In 1926—31 he studied at the University of Bonn, the Higher Technical School in Berlin and the University of Munich, and in 1934 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Breslau. From 1936 he lived in England. In 1936—40 he worked at the University of Bristol, in 1941—46 at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and from 1946 at the atomic centre at Harwell.
His research was in the field of superconductivity, the superfluidity of helium, cryogenic technology, isotope separation and neutron physics. In 1935, together with F. London, he developed the phenomenological theory of superconductivity, proposing an equation to describe the behaviour of superconductors in weak magnetic fields (the F. and H. London equation). He gave the first experimental proof of the hypothesis that an energy gap exists in the microwave region, and measured the surface resistance of superconductors (1940). He proposed a method of obtaining temperatures below 0.1 K by mixing isotopes of helium, and put forward (1962) the idea of a dilution refrigerator working on 3He in 4He. He developed a technique for producing superconducting magnets to create strong magnetic fields. He proposed a method of separating the isotope uranium-235. In 1940 he discovered the anomalous skin effect in metals.