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 from J.S. Hey to Edward Appleton, 1947
Correspondence from J.S. Hey to Edward Appleton, dated 1947. The material includes graphs, and a letter from A. Vrede.
Correspondence from K. Emeleus, D.R.Hartree and L.Tonks to Edward Appleton, 1931-1932
Correspondence from; K. Emeleus, 1931-1932; D.R.Hartree, 1931; and L.Tonks, 1931-1932 to Edward Appleton.
Correspondence from K. Kreielsheimer and K.W. Wagner to Edward Appleton, 1933-1934
Correspondence from K. Kreielsheimer and K.W. Wagner to Edward Appleton. The material consists of correspondence from K. Kreielsheimer (Tromsö observatory), including photographs, data and draft report, dated 1933-1934; and correspondence from K.W. Wagner, dated 1933.
Correspondence from K. Weekes to Edward Appleton, 1939-1958
The maaterial consists of correspondence from K. Weekes to Edward Appleton, dated 1939, 1947, 1950 and 1958.
Correspondence from K.G. Emeleus to Edward Appleton, 1934, 1937
Correspondence from K.G. Emeleus to Edward Appleton, dated 1934 and 1937. 1 of the letters is only 1 page long.
Correspondence from K.G. Emeléus to Edward Appleton, 1948, 1950
Correspondence from K.G. Emeléus to Edward Appleton, dated 1948 and 1950. The material includes more general references to research topics.
Correspondence from L. d'Azambuja, W.G. Beynon and L.C.B. Blanchard to Edward Appleton, 1941-1948
Correspondence between L. d'Azambuja with Edward Appleton, dated 1947, includes a photograph dated July 1946; between W.G. Beynon and Appleton, dated 1946 and 1948; and between L.C.B. Blanchard and Appleton, dated 1945-1946, including data on the ‘hissing phenomenon’, dated 1941 and 1944.
Correspondence from L. Harang to Edward Appleton, 1935-1938
Correspondence from L. Harang to Edward Appleton, dated 1935-1938. The material relates to the research at Tromsö, including data, photographs and a reprint.
Correspondence from L. Schellbach to Edward Appleton, 1946
Correspondence from L. Schellbach to Edward Appleton. The material includes statements by observers of the meteoritic fall and fragment recovered at Grand Canyon, Arizona, October 1946.
Correspondence from L. Tonks, K.W. Tremellen and M. Tuve to Edward Appleton, 1933, 1943, 1964
The material consists of correspondence from L. Tonks to Edward Appleton, dated 1933; from K.W. Tremellen to Appleton, dated 1943; and from M. Tuve to Appleton, dated 1964, Appleton's carbon copy only.
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