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Kate Pyne was a historian working at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston. Her work there included the writing of technical history on various aspects of the British nuclear weapons programme from its earliest days to the present time. Prior to taking a degree in Modern History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University, she worked for many years in the aircraft industry. ==Overview== Pyne was one of the unsung heroes of the nuclear weapons side of Britain’s secret state. As Technical Historian of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston she provided a bridge between the inside world of AWE’s weaponeers and outsider scholars researching the history of the UK as a nuclear weapons power. Her special gift lay in conveying the technical history of the warheads and the supporting scientific and technological infrastructure to wider audiences without breaching the requirements of the special levels of official secrecy that protect nuclear techniques and know-how. As one of her admirers said on hearing of her death at the age of 72, she will be ‘a seriously hard act to follow because of her ability to tell a complex and highly classified story in an understandable and less classified way’. Though a naturally shy woman, Pyne achieved this through a combination of insider seminars and public lectures aided by the knowledge and constant encouragement of her Aldermaston colleagues especially Dr Glynn Libberton. At the time of her death she was close to completing her PhD on the UK’s first hydrogen weapons at King’s College London under the supervision of Professor Mike Goodman.〔http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/warstudies/people/professors/goodman.aspx〕 Kate Pyne came late to the study of history. After several years working as an engineer servicing jet airliners, she saved up to pay her way through an undergraduate course in modern history at Queen Mary and Westfield, University of London. As a 48-year old mature student she made a shaky start in mastering the art of the historical essay but soon began to flourish not least as an ace discoverer of documents at The National Archives in Kew. Her thesis on ‘The Need for and Nature of the British Hydrogen Bomb 1954-58’ possessed a quality and bite that took her examiners’ breath away. Her supervisor, Professor Peter Hennessy, showed it to Lorna Arnold, official historian of the UK hydrogen bomb project at the Atomic Energy Authority, Harwell. Mrs Arnold said: ‘This is the research assistant I’ve been looking for for years’ and took her on. She worked with Arnold until the project was completed before transferring to Aldermaston in 1996 with the encouragement of its Chief Scientist, Ken Johnston (Died 28 September 2015). Kate Pyne had come home. The place, its people and its purpose absorbed her. Her wit, almost overwhelming appetite for work and her attention to detail struck all who learnt from her both inside the Aldermaston fence and beyond. Kate Pyne trod the line between secrecy and openness with aplomb knowing what could be divulged to the scholarly community and the public and what had to be confined to the beloved family of teddy bears who shared her home and acquired and unparalleled knowledge in the toy world of Britain’s nuclear warheads. Katherine Mikayla Pyne was born on 16 June 1943. She died of a pulmonary embolism on 20 June 2015, aged 72. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kate Pyne」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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