Cecil Frank Powell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cecil Frank Powell  |
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| Born | December 5, 1903 Tonbridge, Kent, UK |
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| Died | August 9, 1969 (aged 65) Valsassina, Italy |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge University of Bristol |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | C. T. R. Wilson  Ernest Rutherford |
| Known for | photographic method discovery of the pion |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physics 1950 |
Cecil Frank Powell (December 5, 1903 – August 9, 1969) was a British physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate (1950) for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson), a heavy subatomic particle while working at Bristol University. Powell's collaborators in the study, published in 1947, were Giuseppe Occhialini, H. Muirhead and young Brazilian physicist César Lattes. The pion proved to be the hypothetical particle proposed in 1935 by Yukawa Hideki of Japan in his theory of nuclear physics. Powell was also awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal in 1967, and was a signatory to the Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955.
Powell was educated at the Judd School, Tonbridge and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. The Judd School awards the Powell Physics and Mathematics Prize to an upper sixth form student every year in his honour.
He died in 1969 whilst out walking in the foothills of the Alps near the Valsassina region of Italy, where he had been staying with friends. A bench with commemorative plaque was erected near the site of his death and dedicated to his memory.
[edit] See also
- The Judd School
- Giuseppe Occhialini
- César Lattes
- Yukawa Hideki
- Meson
- Pion
- Muon
- Lomonosov Gold Medal
- Russell-Einstein Manifesto
[edit] References
- Lattes, C. M. G., Muirhead, H., Occhialini, G. P. S. & Powell, C. F.: Processes Involving Charged Mesons. Nature, 159, 694 - 697, (1947)
[edit] External links
- Nobelprize.org - Biography of Powell at the Swedish academy site
- American Institute of Physics - Portrait photograph of Powell
- Frankfurt Institute for Theoretical Physics - Powell appears on a stamp in Grenada
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