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 828 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence and data on F2 layer from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, 1947
Correspondence and data on F2 layer from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, dated 1947.
Correspondence and data with Edward Appleton, January 1959-March 1959
Correspondence and data with Edward Appleton, dated January 1959-March 1959.
Correspondence and drafts from J. Goodier to Edward Appleton, 1931-1932
Correspondence and drafts from J. Goodier to Edward Appleton, dated 1931-1932. Includes various drafts for Goodier's thesis, and for report by Appleton and Goodier to the Radio Research Board, both under the title 'The Dielectric Constant of Ionised Air'.
Correspondence and material on history of radar, 1923, 1945
Correspondence and papers from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, November 1947-December 1947
Correspondence and papers from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, dated November-December 1947. The material includes Japanese and German ionospheric research.
Correspondence and papers regarding Appleton's proposals for post-graduate research at Edinburgh, April-September 1949
Correspondence and papers regarding U.R.S.I. [Union Radio-Scientifique International] programme, 1934-1935
Correspondence and papers relating to hearings of the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, 1951-1952
Correspondence and reports, c. 1945
Correspondence and reports, dated 1945. The material continues the research into ‘Angels’ or unidentified objects discussed in Coll-37/C.265. It consists of correspondence from W. S. Elliott (R.R.D.E. [Radar Research and Development Establishment]) also enclosing A.O.R.G. [Army Operational Research Group] Report 257 on 'Radar Echoes from Birds', by D.L. Lack; and 'Note on echoes of unidentified origin', by Edward Appleton, 2 page typescript, no date.
Correspondence and reports from J.S. Hey to Edward Appleton, 1946-1947
Correspondence and reports from J.S. Hey to Edward Appleton, dated 1946-1947. The material is mainly on the Giacobinid Shower [a meteor shower, now known as the October Draconids], and including photographs, and O.R.G. Report 342 [Army Operational Research Group].
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