Martin N. Wilson

Martin N. Wilson (* 1939 in Doncaster ) is a British physicist who works with particle accelerators , in particular with superconducting components for accelerators.

Life

Wilson was the son of a bank clerk and a school teacher. He studied at the University of Manchester and then went to the UK Atomic Energy Commission - without a doctorate (it was not until much later that he received a D. Sc. In Manchester based on his published work) - where he worked on gas-cooled reactors. In the 1960s he joined a research group led by Peter Smith at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell , which developed superconducting magnets for particle accelerators. In order to overcome the various loss mechanisms ( flow jumps , hysteresis losses) when used in the synchrotron , they developed conductors in the form of thin superconducting fibers in a copper matrix that are woven like a braid ( Rutherford Cable ). Wilson became the laboratory head of the Applied Superconductivity Group. Their conductors formed the basis of the superconducting cables later used in particle accelerators.

He later went to Oxford Instruments as Development Manager , where he developed the first large solenoids for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). He also developed compact accelerators for industry such as Helios for X-ray lithography in the semiconductor industry or Oscar, a cyclotron for positron emission tomography in medicine. He later worked on high-temperature superconductors at Oxford Instruments . He also spent two years at CERN while at Oxford Instruments .

In 1989 he received the Robert R. Wilson Prize .

His brother is a professor of astronomy.

Fonts

• Superconducting Magnets , Oxford University Press 1983, 2002

literature

• Andrew Sessler, Edmund Wilson: Engines of Discovery . World Scientific, 2007