CPH Theory

Welcome to CPH

E-Journal

به نشریه الکترونیکی سی. پی. اچ.

خوش آمدید

Nobel 1951

English Farsi Home Contact us News English Articles Seminars

English Articles page has been updated

The Artificial Production of Fast Particles

Experiments on the Interaction of High-Speed Nucleons with Atomic Nuclei

"for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles"

Sir John Douglas Cockcroft	Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton

1/2 of the prize	1/2 of the prize
United Kingdom	Ireland
Atomic Energy Research Establishment Harwell, Berkshire, United Kingdom	Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
b. 1897 d. 1967	b. 1903 d. 1995

Biography: Ernest T.S. Walton

Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton was born at Dungarvan, County Waterford on the south coast of Ireland on October 6th, 1903, the son of a Methodist Minister from County Tipperary. The ministry demanded that his father move from place to place every few years, and he attended day schools in Banbridge (County Down) and Cookstown (County Tyrone). In 1915 he was sent as a boarder to the Methodist College, Belfast, where he excelled in mathematics and science, and in 1922 he entered Trinity College, Dublin , on a scholarship. He read the honours courses in both mathematics and experimental science, specializing in physics, and graduated in 1926 with firstclass honours in both subjects; he received his M.Sc. degree in 1927.

In 1927, he was awarded a Research Scholarship by the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851 and he went to Cambridge University to work in the Cavendish Laboratory under Lord Rutherford. He continued at Cambridge after receiving a senior research award of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1930, and received his Ph.D. in 1931. Walton was Clerk Maxwell Scholar from 1932 to 1934 when he returned to Trinity College, Dublin, as Fellow: he was appointed Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in 1946, and in 1960 he was elected Senior Fellow of Trinity College.

Prof. Walton's first researches involved theoretical and experimental studies in hydrodynamics and, at the Cavendish Laboratory, he worked on indirect methods for producing fast particles, working on the linear accelerator and on what was later to become known as the betatron. He followed this with work on the direct method of producing fast particles by the use of high voltages this work being done jointly with J.D. Cokcroft. A suitable apparatus was built which made it possible to show that various light elements could be disintegrated by bombardment with fast protons. They were directly responsible for disintegrating the nucleus of the lithium atom by bombardment with accelerated protons, and for identifying the products as helium nuclei.

Prof. Walton has taken part in many activities outside his academic work, and he has served on committees connected with the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards, the Royal City of Dublin Hospital, the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal Dublin Society, Wesley College, Dublin, and many government and church committees. He has had numerous scientific papers published in the journals of learned societies, particularly on the subjects of hydrodynamics, nuclear physics, and microwaves.

He was awarded the Hughes Medal, jointly with Sir John Cockcroft, by the Royal Society of London in 1938, and in 1959 he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Queen's University, Belfast.

E.T.S. Walton married Freda Wilson, daughter of a Methodist Minister and a former pupil of Methodist College, Belfast, in 1934. They have two sons and two daughters, Alan, Marian, Philip, and Jean.

Biography: John Cockcroft

John Douglas Cockcroft was born at Todmorden, England, on May 27th, 1897. His family had for several generations been cotton manufacturers.

He was educated at Todmorden Secondary School and studied mathematics at Manchester University under Horace Lamb in 1914-1915. After serving in the First World War in the Royal Field Artillery he returned to Manchester to study electrical engineering at the College of Technology under Miles Walker. After two years apprenticeship with Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company he went to St. John's College, Cambridge, and took the Mathematical Tripos in 1924. He then worked under Lord Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory.

He first collaborated with P. Kapitsa in the production of intense magnetic fields and low temperatures. In 1928 he turned to work on the acceleration of protons by high voltages and was soon joined in this work by E.T.S. Walton. In 1932 they succeeded in transmuting lithium and boron by high energy protons. In 1933 artificial radioactivity was produced by protons and a wide variety of transmutations produced by protons and deuterons was studied. In 1934 he took charge of the Royal Society Mond Laboratory in Cambridge.

In 1929 he was elected to a Fellowship in St. John's College and became successively University demonstrator, lecturer and in 1939 Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy.

In September 1939 he took up a war-time appointment as Assistant Director of Scientific Research in the Ministry of Supply and started to work on the application of radar to coast and air defence problems. He was a member of the Tizard Mission to the United States in the autumn of 1940. After this he was appointed Head of the Air Defence Research and Development Establishment. In 1944 he went to Canada to take charge of the Canadian Atomic Energy project and became Director of the Montreal and Chalk River Laboratories until 1946 when he returned to England as Director of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell.

For the period 1954-1959 he was scientific research member of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority and has since continued this function on a parttime basis. Election to Master, Churchill College, Cambridge, followed in October 1959. In addition he is Chancellor of the Australian National University, Canberra, and a past President of the Institute of Physics, the Physical Society (1960 to 1962) and the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1961 to 1963).

He has received honorary doctorates from some 19 universities and is a fellow or honorary member of many of the principal scientific societies. In addition, numerous honours and awards have also been bestowed upon him.

He married Eunice Elizabeth Crabtree in 1925 and has four daughters and a son.