 Pippard was educated at Clifton College and Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated with MA (Cantab) and PhD degrees.After working as a scientific officer in radar research during the Second World War, he was appointed as a Demonstrator in Physics at the University of Cambridge in 1946, subsequently becoming a Lecturer in the subject in 1950, a Reader in 1959, and the first John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Physics a year later.In 1971 he was elected Cavendish Professor of Physics.