Lawrence Bragg

Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer
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Sir William Lawrence Bragg CH OBE MC FRS (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer who won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his father Sir William Bragg.

Sir Lawrence Bragg
William L. Bragg in 1915
Born
William Lawrence Bragg

(1890-03-31)31 March 1890
Died1 July 1971(1971-07-01) (aged 81)
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
University of Cambridge
Known forX-ray diffraction
Bragg's Law
AwardsNobel Prize in Physics (1915)
Copley Medal (1966)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsUniversity of Manchester
University of Cambridge
Doctoral advisorJ. J. Thomson
W.H. Bragg

Personal life

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Bragg was always known as Sir Lawrence Bragg, and his father was Sir William Bragg. Lawrence Bragg was educated in Adelaide, Australia and in England. He was awarded the Military Cross in World War I.

He died at a hospital near his home at Waldringfield, Ipswich, Suffolk. He was buried in Trinity College, Cambridge.

Career

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Lawrence Bragg discovered (1912) the Bragg law of X-ray diffraction, the basis of X-ray crystallography. He was joint winner (with his father, Sir William Bragg) of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915.

Winning the Nobel at the age of 25, Lawrence Bragg is the youngest Nobel Laureate.[1] He was the director of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, when the discovery of the structure of DNA was made by James D. Watson and Francis Crick in February 1953.

He was elected an FRS in 1921.[2] He was knighted by George VI in 1941, and received both the Copley Medal and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society.

References

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  1. "Lawrence Bragg". Nobel Prize.org. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  2. Hunter G.K. 2004 Light is a messenger. Oxford:OUP

Other websites

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