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.
Topics
Found in 833 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence between W.J.G. Beynon and Edward Appleton, 1953
Correspondence between W.J.G. Beynon and Edward Appleton, dated 1953. The material includes reports by Beynon on M.C.I. [Mixed Commission on the Ionosphere] meeting at Canberra in August 1952, and on the meeting on the International Geophysical Year at Brussels, July 1953, information on next meeting of the M.C.I. in Brussels, 1954, etc.
Correspondence between W.J.G. Beynon and Edward Appleton, 1955
Correspondence between W.J.G. Beynon and Edward Appleton, dated 1955. The material relates to U.R.S.I. [Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale] and M.C.I. [Mixed Commission on the Ionosphere] affairs, organisation of I.G.Y. [International Geophysical Year] and arrangements for the meeting in the U.S.A. in 1957. It includes and offprint of an article on I.G.Y. by Appleton from The Times, 17 January.
Correspondence between W.J.G. Beynon and Edward Appleton, January 1956-March 1956
Brief correspondence between W.J.G. Beynon and Edward Appleton, dated January 1956-March 1956.
Correspondence, data and drafts exchanged by Edward Appleton and A.J. Lyon, 1955 and undated
Correspondence, data and drafts exchanged by Edward Appleton and A.J. Lyon, dated 1955. The material is similar to Coll-37/C.141 and it includes references to W.J.G. Beynon's findings (see Coll-37/C.143-C.144) and some undated notes by Appleton.
Correspondence, data and research notes, 1957-1959
Correspondence, data and research notes exchanged by Edward Appleton and A.J. Lyon, 1954
Correspondence, data and research notes exchanged by Edward Appleton and A.J. Lyon, dated 1954. Some of the material is from Slough, where Lyon worked during the summer and some of Appleton's notes are addressed to A.G. Pritchard jointly with Lyon.
Correspondence, data, photographs, etc., exchanged by Edward Appleton, R. Naismith and L.J. Ingram, 1936
Correspondence, data, photographs, etc., exchanged by Edward Appleton, R. Naismith and L.J. Ingram, dated 1936.
Correspondence from 1st Viscount Cherwell (F.A. Lindemann) to Edward Appleton, 1945
Correspondence from 1st Viscount Cherwell (F.A. Lindemann) to Edward Appleton, dated 1945. The material includes comments on a draft paper by Appleton, with manuscript notes by Appleton and W.R. Piggott.
Correspondence from A. G. Lee and H. Narinder to Edward Appleton, 1925, 1933
Correspondence from A. G. Lee and H. Narinder to Edward Appleton. The correspondence from A.G. Lee relates to Post Office reception methods and is dated 1925. The correspondence from H. Narindner is dated 1933.
Correspondence from A. Gray to Edward Appleton, 1956 and no date
Correspondence from A. Gray to Edward Appleton, 1956 and no date. The material encloses references and information.
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