Richard Wilson (physicist)

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Richard Wilson (born April 29, 1926 in Putney, London , † May 19, 2018 in Needham (Massachusetts) ) was a British-American physicist .

career

Wilson studied at Christ Church College of Oxford University where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1946 and graduated in 1949 graduated with master's degrees and doctorate. From 1948 to 1953 he was a Research Lecturer in Physics at Christ Church College. In 1950/51 he was at the University of Rochester , 1951/52 at Stanford University (with Wolfgang Panofsky ) and from 1953 to 1955 again in Oxford at the Clarendon Laboratory . In 1955 he became assistant professor and 1961 professor at Harvard University , where he was last Mallinckrodt professor of physics (retired since 1999).

In 1961 he was a Guggenheim Fellow at the University of Paris-Süd in Orsay and in 1969 a Fulbright Fellow at the Laboratori Nationali di Frascati near Rome. In 1981 he was visiting professor at Grenoble University .

research

He dealt with experimental nuclear and particle physics , in particular with the nucleon (for example its form factors in lepton- nucleon- scattering experiments ), using first the cyclotron of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell and then that of Harvard University, which he used for upgraded the study of nucleon-nucleon scattering (to 160 MeV). From 1962 to 1968 he was chairman of the management committee of the Cambridge Electron Accelerator (CEA), a 6 GeV synchrotron that examined nucleons with electron scattering and which he helped develop. From 1972 he was also involved in experiments on muon scattering on nucleons at Fermilab (E98, E665). He was also involved in experiments at the CEBAF (Jefferson National Laboratory) to clarify the parity violation in electron-proton scattering and scattering of polarized electrons on protons (form factor for strange quarks in the nucleon). He also supported early electron-positron accelerators (proposals 1956, 1962), on which he worked at Frascati and at Cornell University (CLEO Collaboration). After the Harvard cyclotron became obsolete for particle physics research, he helped convert it for cancer treatment.

From the 1970s he turned to nuclear risks and was considered an expert on reactor safety and risk analysis in general, where he also became known to the public. This not only applied to nuclear energy, but also, for example, to carcinogens . He was the first American scientist to visit Chernobyl after the reactor accident there and take measurements (accompanied by a television team from PBS ). He campaigned for arsenic- free drinking water, for example in a project in Bangladesh. He was one of the early supporters of Andrei Sakharov and other Soviet dissidents.

Around 940 publications come from him.

Honors

Wislon had been a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 1962 . In 1987 he was awarded a medal as "Chernobyl Liquidator" by the Soviet government for his work in the Chernobyl accident. In 1993 he received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society for Risk Analysis. In 2006 he was awarded the Ettore Majorana Prize - Erice - Science for Peace and in 2008 a Presidential Citation from the American Nuclear Society .

In 2012 he received the Andrei Sakharov Prize for commitment to human rights.

He had been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1958 .

Fonts (selection)

  • The nucleon-nucleon interaction: experimental and phenomenological aspects, Interscience 1963
  • Editor with Fernando Amman: Energy Demand and Efficient Use, Springer 1981
  • with W. Jones: Energy, Ecology and the Environment, Academic Press, 1974
  • with Edmond AC Crouch: Risk / Benefit Analysis, Ballinger 1982, 2nd edition Harvard University Press 2001
  • A Brief History of the Harvard Cyclotrons, Harvard University Press 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary in Harvard Gazette , June 1, 2018
  2. ^ A b Richard Wilson: Curriculum Vitae. In: harvard.edu. November 22, 2011, archived from the original on 20120523 .;
  3. ↑ PUBLICATION LIST. In: harvard.edu. July 14, 2012, archived from the original on July 15, 2012 .;
  4. ^ APS Fellowship Records. Accessed January 31, 2020 .
  5. ^ Ettore Majorana Prize - Erice - Science for Peace. EMFCSC, accessed January 31, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter W. (PDF; 852 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Accessed July 11, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Wilson, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH 19th May 2018
Place of death Needham, Massachusetts