Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892-1965 (physicist and principal of the University of Edinburgh)
Dates
- Existence: 1892 - 1965
Biography
Appleton was born in Bradford and educated at local schools and St John's College, Cambridge where he was awarded first class honours and several prizes in both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos (1913, 1914). He began research at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge with W.L. Bragg, but during his service in the Army Signals in the First World War he developed the interest in valves and 'wireless' signals which informed his subsequent research career. He returned to the Cavendish Laboratory in 1919, continuing to work on valves and, with B. van der Pol, on non-linearity, and on atmospherics. In 1924, in collaboration with M.F. Barnett, he performed a crucial experiment which enabled a reflecting layer in the atmosphere to be identified and measured; subsequent research indicated the existence of more than one reflecting layer. From 1924 to 1936 Appleton was Wheatstone Professor of Physics at King's College, London, directing research teams and, in 1932, heading an expedition to Tromsö in northern Norway as part of the programme of observations scheduled for the Second International Polar Year
He was President of the International Union of Scientific Radio (URSI), 1934-1952. In 1936 he succeeded C.T.R. Wilson in the Jacksonian Chair of Natural Philosophy at Cambridge, where he continued collaborative research on many ionospheric problems, including solar and lunar tides in the E-layer. From September 1936 he served on the re-constituted Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defence (the 'Tizard Committee'), and in October 1938 was appointed successor to Sir Frank Smith as Secretary to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). He remained at the DSIR throughout the Second World War and until 1948 when he was appointed Principal of Edinburgh University. He took up the appointment in May 1949 and remained in office until his death in 1965. Appleton was elected FRS in 1927 (Bakerian Lecture 1937, Hughes Medal 1933, Royal Medal 1950) and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947 for his investigations into the ionosphere. He was knighted in 1941.
Found in 3 Collections and/or Records:
'Atomic energy and its applications', c. 1949-1951
The material consists ofdDrafts for Edward Appleton’s chapter to the book ‘Aspects of Modern Science', published in 1951, with some editorial correspondence. It is contained in its original folder, inscribed ‘Atomic Energy'.
Letter from Edward Appleton to 'Edward' and two letters from Ernest Rutherford to Edward Appleton, 1922, 1925, 1962
Letter from Appleton to 'Edward' dated 1962 describing his award of The Wiltshire Prize for Geology and Mineralogy in his Cambridge Tripos in 1913.
Two letters from Ernest Rutherford to Edward Appleton. The first is dated 1922, recommending Appleton for 'The King's Professorship (N.B. Appleton became Wheatstone Professor at King's College, London, only in 1924), and the second is dated 1925, accepting his resignation as Assistant Demonstrator of the Cavendish Laboratory.
Newspaper article, 'Scotland and the Atomic Age' and 4 notes for speeches and addresses by Edward Appleton, January 1960-November 1960
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- Nuclear Physics 2
- Collisions (Nuclear Physics) 1
- Correspondence 1
- Nuclear Energy 1