George Paget Thomson

Born: 3-May-1892

Birthplace: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England

Died: 10-Sep-1975

Location of death: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England

Cause of death: unspecified



Gender: Male

Race or Ethnicity: White

Sexual orientation: Straight

Occupation: Physicist

Nationality: England

Executive summary: Diffraction of electrons

Military service: Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment (to Captain; 1914-20)

George Paget Thomson discovered the wave-like diffraction of electrons in 1927, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics ten years later. His Nobel honor was shared with Clinton Davisson, who made the same discovery independently. During World War II he chaired Britain's MAUD Committee, which determined that construction of atomic weapons was feasible. His father, J. J. Thomson, discovered the electron and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906.

Father: J. J. Thomson (physicist)

Mother: Rose Elizabeth Paget (m. 22-Jan-1890)

Sister: Joan Paget Thomson

Wife: Kathleen Buchanan Smith Thomson (m. 1924, d. 1941, two sons, two daughters)

Son: John Adam Thomson (United Nations diplomat, b. 1927)

Son: David Paget Thomson (businessman, b. 1931)

Daughter: Lilian Clare Thomson de Villiers Graaff



High School: The Perse School, Cambridge, England

University: Trinity College, Cambridge University (1913)

Lecturer: Cambridge University (1914-22)

Professor: Natural Philosophy, University of Aberdeen (1922-30)

Professor: Physics, Imperial College London (1930-52)

Professor: Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University (1952-62)

Administrator: Master, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University (1952-62)



Nobel Prize for Physics 1937 (with Clinton J. Davisson)

Hughes Medal 1939

Knight of the British Empire 1943

Royal Medal 1949

MAUD Committee Chair, 1940-41

American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign Member

British Eugenics Society

Royal Society



Author of books:

The Atom ( 1930 , non-fiction)

The Wave Mechanics of Free Electrons ( 1930 , non-fiction)

Theory and Practice of Electron Diffraction ( 1939 , non-fiction; with William Cochrane)

The Atom and The Foreseeable Future ( 1955 )

The Inspiration of Science ( 1961 )

J.J. Thomson and the Cavendish Laboratory in His Day ( 1965 , history)







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