Cecil Reginald Burch, FRS (12 May 1901 - 19 Jul 1983) was a British physicist and engineer.

He was born in Leeds

Leeds

Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. He graduated from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...

 in 1923 and began research at the Metropolitan-Vickers

Metropolitan-Vickers

Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam...

 company in Trafford Park

Trafford Park

Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Located opposite Salford Quays, on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, it is west-southwest of Manchester city centre, and north of Stretford. Until the late 19th century it was the...

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

. There he developed 'apiezon' oils which enabled high vacua to be achieved, making possible the coating of astronomical mirrors. In 1933 he was made Fellow of Optics at Imperial College London

Imperial College London

Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...

 and in 1935 moved to Bristol University as a research Fellow in the Department of Physics. There he concentrated on the development of microscopy and telescopy.

He won the 1942 Duddell Medal and Prize

Duddell Medal and Prize

The Duddell Medal and Prize was a prize awarded annually by the Institute of Physics in the memory of William du Bois Duddell, the inventor of the electromagnetic oscillograph. The medal was instituted by the Council of The Physical Society in 1923. Between 1961 and 1973 the prize was awarded in...

 and the 1954 Rumford Medal

Rumford Medal

The Rumford Medal is awarded by the Royal Society every alternating year for "an outstandingly important recent discovery in the field of thermal or optical properties of matter made by a scientist working in Europe". First awarded in 1800, it was created after a 1796 donation of $5000 by the...

, the latter 'For his distinguished contributions to the technique for the production of high vacua and to the development of the reflecting microscope'.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1944.

He married Enid G Morice in 1937.