Arnold Wolfendale
Sir Arnold Whittaker Wolfendale (born June 25, 1927 in Rugby , Warwickshire ) is an English physicist and astronomer.
biography
Wolfendale grew up in Flixton near Manchester and first wanted to become a ship designer , but then studied physics at the University of Manchester with a bachelor's degree in 1948 and a doctorate in 1953 (The nuclear interaction of mu-mesons). In Manchester he belonged to Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett's group , was his assistant and became a lecturer . From 1956 he was at Durham University , where he followed George Dixon Rochester , who was Blackett's successor in Manchester. In Durham he was Professor of Physics from 1965 until his retirement in 1992. He also established a cosmology group there - including Richard Ellis and George Efstathiou as members - and other areas of astronomy such as active optics.
He is known for his contributions to cosmic radiation and the spectra of the muons, protons, neutrons, neutrinos and pions contained therein. He succeeded in detecting neutrinos in cosmic radiation (published two weeks before Frederick Reines in 1965), with experiments in the gold mines of Kolar in India , and in measuring the primary spectrum of cosmic radiation above the atmosphere. He developed the neon flash tube and the solid iron spectrograph, which were widely used in experiments involving cosmic radiation. Later he dealt with the origin of cosmic radiation, which led him to astronomy and gamma-ray astronomy.
His research on cosmic radiation led to a reassessment of the distribution of gas clouds in the galaxy. The gas distribution in the interior of the galaxy assumed up to that point was, as was shown by the cosmic radiation data, too high by a factor of three. The theory of mass extinction due to fluctuations in the position of the solar system in relation to the galactic plane - with an increased number of comets due to disturbances in the Oort cloud by gas clouds - could thus be refuted, since the gas clouds in question were not dense enough according to the data of cosmic radiation.
In 1970 he received a D.Sc. From 1991 to 1995 he was Astronomer Royal . He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (1977) and the Royal Astronomical Society (1973), of which he was President. In 2002 he gave the Bakerian Lecture . In 1995 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor . He has been a member of the Academia Europaea since 1998 . He is an honorary doctor of the University of Bucharest and a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Learning in Cracow . From 1999 to 2001 he was President of the European Physical Society . In 1992 he received the Marian Smoluchowski Medal .
He devoted himself after reading the book Longitude by Dava Sobel the task of John Harrison to honor in England, caused a Medal of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in his memory and for a plaque in Westminster Abbey close to those of Thomas Tompion and George Graham , for which he raised £ 30,000.
In 1951 he married Audrey Darby, with whom he has twin sons.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wolfendale, Arnold |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wolfendale, Arnold Whittaker (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British astronomer and physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 25, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rugby , Warwickshire |