Sir Edward Victor Appleton (1892-1965)

Awarded the Prize “for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer.”

British Physicist. Appleton was born in Bradford, Engl on September 6, 1892. He took his B.A. degree in Natural Science at St. John’s College, Cambridge. In 1924 he was appointed Professor of Physics at King’s College, London. In 1936 he became the Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Cambridge. During the war years until 1949 he was Secretary of the Department of Scientific Industrial Research, leading research into radar the atomic bomb. From 1949 until his death he was principal of Edinburgh University. He was a member of the Royal Society. Appleton died in Edinbourg on April 21, 1965.