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Raymond Davis, Jr.

Raymond Davis, Jr.Born: 14-Oct-1914
Birthplace: Washington, DC
Died: 31-May-2006
Location of death: Blue Point, NY
Cause of death: Alzheimer's

Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Scientist, Astronomer

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Detected solar neutrinos

Military service: US Army Air Force (1942-45)

American astrochemist Raymond Davis, Jr. was the first scientist to collect neutrinos — tiny, elusive particles emitted from the nuclear-fusion reactions in the core of the Sun, and his work showed that the Sun's heat and fury is caused by the fusion of four protons into helium-4. In 1968 he discovered the solar-neutrino anomaly, wherein the Sun generates energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium, creating electron-type neutrinos that are changed into other types of neutrinos during their journey from the Sun to the Earth. Davis conducted decades of experiments deep in the Homestake Gold Mine in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where the darkness and distance underground helped shield the neutrino detector from ordinary cosmic rays, which would otherwise obscure any signals caused by neutrino collisions. He shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physics with Masatoshi Koshiba, whose work confirmed Davis's findings.

Father: Raymond Davis, Sr. (photographer, b. circa 1888, d. 1974)
Mother: Ida Rogers Younger
Brother: Warren
Wife: Anna Torrey (m. 1948, three sons, two daughters)
Son: Andrew Davis
Daughter: Martha Kumler
Daughter: Nancy Klemm
Son: Roger Davis
Son: Alan Davis

    University: BS Chemistry, University of Maryland (1938)
    University: MS Chemistry, University of Maryland (1940)
    University: PhD Physical Chemistry, Yale University (1942)
    Scholar: Brookhaven National Laboratory (1948-84)
    Professor: University of Pennsylvania (1984-2006)

    NAS Cyrus B. Comstock Prize in Physics 1978
    APS Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics 1988
    APS W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics 1992
    AAS Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize 1994
    AAS George Ellery Hale Prize 1996
    Wolf Prize in Physics 2000 (with Masatoshi Koshiba)
    National Medal of Science 2001
    Nobel Prize for Physics 2002 (with Riccardo Giacconi and Masatoshi Koshiba)
    Enrico Fermi Award 2003
    Benjamin Franklin Medal 2003 (Franklin Institute)
    NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Sample Return Board (1971-73)
    Monsanto Industrial Chemist (1945-48)
    Dow Chemical Industrial Chemist (1938-39)
    National Academy of Sciences
    Alpha Chi Sigma Chemistry Fraternity


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