bibliography
NNDB
This is a beta version of NNDB
Search: for

Mark Oliphant

AKA Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant

Born: 8-Oct-1901
Birthplace: Kent Town, Australia
Died: 14-Jul-2000
Location of death: Canberra, Australia
Cause of death: Illness

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Physicist, Politician

Nationality: Australia
Executive summary: Deuterium reactions

Australian physicist Mark Oliphant worked with Ernest Rutherford, in their co-discovery of new forms of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) and helium (helion, the stable helium-3 nucleus). He oversaw the development of the cavity magnetron, worked on the team that developed microwave radar, then was assigned to the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. He later became an outspoken activist against militarization of the atom, spoke out against the Vietnam war, and publicly supported American nuclear scientist Robert Oppenheimer when he was savaged by McCarthyism. Oliphant was on the founding faculty of Australian National University, the first President of the Australian Academy of Science, and served five years as the Governor of the state of South Australia. His nephew is the cartoonist Pat Oliphant.

Father: (gov't worker)
Mother: (artist)
Wife: Rosa Wilbraham Oliphant

    University: BS, University of Adelaide (1926)
    University: PhD Physics, Cambridge University (1929)
    Teacher: Physics, Cambridge University (1934-37)
    Professor: Physics, University of Birmingham (1937-50)
    Administrator: Director of Research School of Physical Sciences, Australian National University (1950-54)
    Professor: Physical Sciences, Australian National University (1954-63)
    Professor: Physics, Australian National University (1963-67)

    Hughes Medal 1943
    Order of Australia
    Knight of the British Empire
    Australian Official Governor of South Australia (1971-76)
    UN Official International Atomic Energy Commission:1946-47
    Royal Society 1937
    Australian Academy of Science President (1954-57)
    Manhattan Project (1943-45)
    Risk Factors: Vegetarian

Author of books:
Science and the Future (1970)
Rutherford: Recollections of the Cambridge Days (1972)


New!
NNDB MAPPER
Create a map starting with Mark Oliphant
Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile



Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications