William Henry Bragg

Sir William Henry Bragg OM KBE PRS^[1] (2 July 1862 – 12 March 1942) was a British physicist, chemist, mathematician and active sportsman.^[2]

Sir William Henry Bragg OM KBE PRS
Born	(1862-07-02)2 July 1862 Wigton, Cumberland, United Kingdom
Died	12 March 1942(1942-03-12) (aged 79) London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Known for	X-ray diffraction Bragg peak
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1915) Barnard Medal (1915) Matteucci Medal (1915) Rumford Medal (1916) Copley Medal (1930) Faraday Medal (1936) John J. Carty Award (1939)
Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Adelaide University of Leeds University College London Royal Institution
Academic advisors	J. J. Thomson
Notable students	W. L. Bragg Kathleen Lonsdale William Thomas Astbury John Desmond Bernal John Burton Cleland
Notes
He is the father of Lawrence Bragg. Father and son jointly won the Nobel Prize.

Bragg shared a Nobel Prize with his son William Lawrence Bragg – the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics.^[3]

Adelaide

In 1885, at 23, Bragg was appointed Elder Professor of Mathematics and Experimental Physics at the University of Adelaide,^[4] and started work there early in 1886.

Bragg was an able and popular lecturer; he encouraged the formation of the student union, and the attendance, free of charge, of science teachers at his lectures.^[5][6]

Bragg was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1907.

Leeds

Bragg returned to England at the end of 1908 and took the Cavendish Chair in Physics at the University of Leeds in 1909. He published an imporant early work on radioactivity, Studies in radioactivity, in 1912.

He invented the X-ray spectrometer, and began work with his son. Together they founded the new technique of X-ray crystallography, for which they won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1915. That year was also marked by their book X-rays and crystal structure, the standard text for many years.

From 1914, both father and son contributed to the war effort; W.H. Bragg was connected with submarine detection, at Aberdour on Forth and at Harwich, and returned to London in 1918 as a consultant to the Admiralty.^[5]

University College London

Bragg was appointed Quain Professor of Physics at University College London in 1915, but did not take up his duties there until after World War I.

Royal Institution

From 1923 he was Fullerian Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution and director of the Davy Faraday Research Laboratory.^[7] This institution was practically rebuilt in 1929-30 and, under Bragg's directorship, many valuable papers were issued from the laboratory.^[5]

References

1. Da c. Andrade, E. N.; Lonsdale, K. (1943). "William Henry Bragg. 1862-1942". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 4 (12): 276. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1943.0003. JSTOR 769040. S2CID 202574479.
2. Da C. Andrade E.N. & Lonsdale K. 1943. William Henry Bragg. 1862-1942. Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 4 (12): 276.
3. This is still a unique accomplishment, because no other parent-child combination has yet shared a Nobel Prize (in any field). In several cases, a parent has won a Nobel Prize, and then years later, the child has won the Nobel Prize for separate research. An example of this is with Marie Curie and her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, who are the only mother-daughter pair. Several father-son pairs have won two separate Nobel Prizes.
4. Bragg Centenary, 1886-1986, University of Adelaide, pages 3 & 4.
5. "Bragg, Sir William Henry (1862-1942)". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Archived from the original on 2021-01-26. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
6. Tomlin S.G. 1979. Australian Dictionary of Biography. Bragg, Sir William Henry (1862-1942)
7. "The Davy Faraday Research Laboratory". Archived from the original on 2008-05-15. Retrieved 2011-04-18.