Egon Bretscher

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Egon Bretscher (born May 23, 1901 in Zurich ; † April 16, 1973 ) was a Swiss nuclear physicist and chemist .

Life

Bretscher studied chemistry at the ETH Zurich , received his diploma in the field of technical chemistry and was then 1925–1927 doctoral student with Sir James Walker at the University of Edinburgh , where he worked on the topic of Influence of substitution by the methoxy group on the optical rotary powers of menthyl naphthoates doctorate . He then went back to ETH Zurich, where he turned to physical problems. From 1934 to 1936 he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory on a Rockefeller Foundation grant . From 1936 he was Clerk Maxwell Scholar and from 1939 lecturer at Cambridge University . He was one of the research pioneers in the newly emerging field of nuclear fission . He was the first scientist in Great Britain to recognize the future importance of plutonium . His work in nuclear physics led to his involvement in the Tube Alloys Project after the outbreak of World War II and, in early 1944, to his participation in the British mission to the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos . There he worked in Enrico Fermi's department . His measurements of nuclear scattering cross-sections later became important both in fusion research and in astrophysics .

After the war ended, he went to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) in Harwell in 1947 . First he was head of the Chemistry Division and from 1948 head of the Nuclear Physics Division .

In 1966 he was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Bretscher died in 1973 in his native Switzerland.

literature

  • Anthony P. French : Egon Bretscher (obituary) . In: Physics Today . tape 26 , no. 10 , 1973, p. 73 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nuclear Power Year Book and Buyer's Guide
  2. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Egon Bretscher at academictree.org, accessed on January 14, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Bretscher, Egon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss nuclear physicist and chemist
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1973