Alan Herries Wilson

Alan Herries Wilson , mostly quoted by AH Wilson , (born July 2, 1906 in Wallasey , Cheshire , † September 30, 1995 ) was a British theoretical solid-state physicist and manager.

Wilson studied mathematics at Cambridge University with a bachelor's degree in 1926, where he studied quantum mechanics under Ralph Howard Fowler . He then worked with Werner Heisenberg in Leipzig, where he dealt with the quantum mechanics of electrons in solids. His pioneering work on the ribbon model , in which he explained the different behavior of metals, semiconductors and insulators, appeared from 1931. In 1932 he received the Adams Prize . He published two books on theoretical solid-state physics in the 1930s ( The theory of metals emerged from the Adams Prize Essay) but then turned to nuclear physics and cosmic rays. During World War II he worked on radio communications for the SOE and in the British atomic bomb project (Tube Alloy Project). After the war he went into industry for the textile and chemical company Courtaulds, where he led research on synthetic fibers. From 1963 until his retirement in 1973 he was a director of the pharmaceutical company Glaxo .

In 1942 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society . In 1961 he was ennobled.

Fonts

• The electrical properties of semi-conductors and insulators, Paris: Hermann 1934
• The theory of metals, Cambridge University Press 1936, 2nd edition 1953
• Semi-conductors and metals: an introduction to the electron theory of metals, Cambridge University Press 1939
• Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Cambridge University Press 1957, 1966

literature

• EH Sondheimer, Biographical Memoirs Fellows Royal Society, Volume 45, 1999, pp. 547-562

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilson, The theory of electronic semi-conductors, part 1, 2, Proc. Roy. Soc. A, Volume 133, 1931, pp. 458-491, Volume 134, 1931, pp. 277-287