Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892-1965 (physicist and principal of the University of Edinburgh)

Person

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

University of Edinburgh -- Principal

Found in 833 Collections and/or Records:

Correspondence from Max Born and R.L. Borrow to Edward Appleton, 1958, 1934

File

Identifier: Coll-37/E.18

Scope and Contents

Correspondence from Max Born to Edward Appleton, dated 1958 and from R.L. Borrow to Edward Appleton, dated 1934. The material from Borrow relates to radio echoes.

Dates: 1958, 1934

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from M.N. Saha, R. L. Smith-Rose, F.J.M. Stratton and H.C. van de Hulst to Edward Appleton, c. 1945-1948

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.351

Scope and Contents

Correspondence from M.N. Saha to Edward Appleton, dated 1948, from R. L. Smith-Rose to Edward Appleton, dated 1945, from F.J.M. Stratton to Edward Appleton, c. 1946 and from H.C. van de Hulst to Edward Appleton, dated 1947.

Dates: c. 1945-1948

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Solar Noise / Correspondence

Correspondence from M.V. Wilkes to Edward Appleton, 1939

File

Identifier: Coll-37/E.149

Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from M.V. Wilkes to Edward Appleton, dated 1939.

Dates: 1939

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from N. Ashridge, S. Chapman, T.L. Eckersley, D.R. Hartree and L.Harang with Edward Appleton, 1937-1938

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.398

Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from N. Ashridge, S. Chapman, T.L. Eckersley, D.R. Hartree with Edward Appleton dated 1937 and from L.Harang with Edward Appleton dated 1938.

Dates: 1937-1938

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Additional Material / Absorption / 'General Theory of Absorption' / 'Absorption R.R.B. [Radio Research Board] Report' / Correspondence

Correspondence from N. Kemmer to Edward Appleton, 1956

File

Identifier: Coll-37/E.57

Scope and Contents

Correspondence from E. Kemmer to Edward Appleton, dated 1956. The material relates to Max Born's book on the atomic bomb project.

Dates: 1956

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from O. Burkard and T.J. Carroll to Edward Appleton, 1947, 1957

File

Identifier: Coll-37/E.23

Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from O. Burkard to Edward Appleton, dated 1947 and from T.J. Carroll to Edward Appleton, dated 1957. The correspondence from Carroll relates to the history of radio and Marconi.

Dates: 1947, 1957

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from O. Devik to Edward Appleton, 1945

File

Identifier: Coll-37/E.34

Scope and Contents

Correspondence from O. Devik to Edward Appleton, dated 1945. The material includes data and graphs from Kjeller.

Dates: 1945

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from P. Angwin to Edward Appleton, 1951

File

Identifier: Coll-37/E.3

Scope and Contents

Correspondence from P. Angwin to Edward Appleton, dated 1951. The material includes a note on Radio Astronomy in the South Bank exhibition at the Festival of Britain.

Dates: 1951

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from P.G. Gane to Edward Appleton, 1936

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.178

Scope and Contents

Correspondence from P.G. Gane to Edward Appleton, dated 1936. The material is mainly about Gane's thesis on 'The frictional coefficient for electrons moving in ionised air', of which a copy is included.

Dates: 1936

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Ionisation / Contents of bulky folder, inscribed by Edward Appleton ‘Ionised Air’

Correspondence from P.O. Pedersen, M.L. Phillips and J.A. Pierce to Edward Appleton, 1931, 1947 and no date

File

Identifier: Coll-37/E.86

Scope and Contents

The material consists of Correspondence from P.O. Pedersen to Edward Appleton, dated 22 April 1931; from M. L. Phillips to Appleton, no date; and from J. A. Pierce (from Harvard) to Appleton, dated 17 December 1947.

Dates: 1931, 1947 and no date

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892-1965 (physicist and principal of the University of Edinburgh)

Dates

Biography

Topics

Found in 833 Collections and/or Records:

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