Cecil Frank Powell was a physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1950 for his work on nuclear processes and for discovering the pi meson, a subatomic particle. He was born in Tonbridge, Kent on December 5, 1903. His father, Frank Powell, was a gunsmith. His grandfather, George Bisacre, started a private school nearby in Southborough. Education was highly valued and encouraged in the family.
At the age of eleven, Powell earned a scholarship to attend the Judd School in Tonbridge. He then won a scholarship to attend Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He graduated from the natural science program with first honors. Powell remained at Cambridge to work in the Cavendish Laboratory with C.T.R. Wilson and Lord Ernest Rutherford.
In 1927, Powell completed his Ph.D. and became a research assistant at Bristol University. He worked with A.M. Tyndall in the H.H. Wills Laboratory. He was advanced to lecturer, then reader. In 1936 he went on an expedition to the West Indies to study volcanic activity and returned to Bristol in 1948. He then became the Melville Wills professor of physics. He went on other expeditions throughout his career including high altitude balloon flights in the Po Valley and Sardinia.
Powell’s research began at the Cavendish Laboratory. He studied condensation and steam discharge. His work led to improvements in steam turbine performance and efficiency. In Bristol he focused on finding an accurate method for measuring the movement of positive ions and finding ions in gases. He also studied neutron and proton scattering by accelerating protons.
In 1938, Powell began experimenting with cosmic radiation and discovered a technique for recording particle paths in photographic emulsions. He then studied the disintegration and scattering of high energy deuterons before discovering the pi meson, a heavy subatomic particle.
Powell earned many honors for his work including becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society, receiving the Hughes Medal and the Royal Medal. He has been given honorary doctorate degrees by the Universities of Bordeaux, Warsaw, and Dublin. He became a member of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. He was an honorary Fellow of the Physical Society and served with the Scientific Policy Committee for the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva.
Powell married Isobel Therese Artner in 1932. She assisted him in research and the two had two daughters. Powell died on August 9, 1969 while walking in the Alps in Italy.
|
