Bertram Brockhouse
{{short description|Canadian physicist, Nobel laureate (1918–2003)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Bertram Brockhouse
| birth_name = Bertram Neville Brockhouse
| image = Bertram Brockhouse.jpg
| caption = Brockhouse in front of a blackboard
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|07|15|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2003|10|13|1918|07|15|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| residence =
| field =
| work_institutions = McMaster University
| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|
| thesis_title = The effect of stress and temperature upon the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials
| thesis_url = http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/222041304
| thesis_year = 1950
| doctoral_advisor = James Reekie
| doctoral_students = Sow-Hsin Chen
| known_for = Neutron triple-axis spectrometry
| influences =
| influenced =
| prizes = {{Plainlist|
- Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize (1962)
- Duddell Medal and Prize (1963)
- FRS (1965)
- Henry Marshall Tory Medal (1973)
- Nobel Prize in Physics (1994)}}
| website = {{URL|http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1994/brockhouse-bio.html}}
}}
Bertram Neville Brockhouse, {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CC|FRSC|FRS}} (July 15, 1918 – October 13, 2003){{Cite journal | last1 = Cowley | first1 = R.| author-link = Roger Cowley | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.2005.0004 | title = Bertram Neville Brockhouse. 15 July 1918 - 13 October 2003: Elected F.R.S. 1965 | journal = Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 51 | pages = 51–65| year = 2005 | doi-access = free }} was a Canadian physicist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (1994, shared with Clifford Shull) "for pioneering contributions to the development of neutron scattering techniques for studies of condensed matter", in particular "for the development of neutron spectroscopy".[http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=4 science.ca profile of Bertram Brockhouse][http://www.nobel.se/physics/laureates/1994/index.html Brockhouse biographical details from nobelprize.org]{{Canadian honour|Type=orc|ID=3431|accessdate=24 May 2010}}
Education and early life
Brockhouse was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, to a family of English descent.{{Cite journal |last=Cowley |first=Roger |date=2005 |title=Bertram Neville Brockhouse. 15 July 1918 – 13 October 2003: Elected F.R.S. 1965 |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbm.2005.0004 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |language=en |volume=51 |pages=51–65 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2005.0004 |issn=0080-4606|url-access=subscription }} He was a graduate of the University of British Columbia (BA, 1947) and the University of Toronto (MA, 1948; Ph.D, 1950).{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Bertram Neville|last=Brockhouse |title=The effect of stress and temperature upon the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials |publisher=University of Toronto |date=1950 |oclc=222041304}}{{cite web |url=http://neutron.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/brock_e.html |title=Brockhouse and the Nobel Prize - Canadian Neutron Beam Centre |publisher=neutron.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca |access-date=2008-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217043548/http://neutron.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/brock_e.html |archive-date=2009-02-17 }}
Career and research
From 1950 to 1962, Brockhouse carried out research at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory. Here he was joined by P. K. Iyengar, who is treated as the father of India's nuclear program.
In 1962, he became a professor at McMaster University in Canada, where he remained until his retirement in 1984.
Brockhouse died on October 13, 2003, in Hamilton, Ontario, aged 85.
Awards and honours
Brockhouse was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1965. In 1982, Brockhouse was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1995.
Brockhouse shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics with American Clifford Shull of MIT{{cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/shull.html |title=Clifford G. Shull, co-winner of 1994 Nobel Prize in physics, is dead at 85 |access-date=2010-12-27 |date=2001-04-02 |work=MIT-News |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522165928/http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/shull.html |archive-date=2012-05-22 |quote=Professor Shull shared the 1994 Nobel Prize with Professor Bertram S. Brockhouse of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. |url-status=dead }} for developing neutron scattering techniques for studying condensed matter.
In October 2005, as part of the 75th anniversary of McMaster University's establishment in Hamilton, Ontario, a street on the university campus (University Avenue) was renamed to Brockhouse Way in honour of Brockhouse. The town of Deep River, Ontario, has also named a street in his honour.
The Nobel Prize that Bertram Brockhouse won (shared with Clifford Shull) in 1994 was awarded after the longest-ever waiting time (counting from the time when the award-winning research had been carried out).
In 1999 the Division of Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (DCMMP) and the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) created a medal in honour of Brockhouse. The medal is called the Brockhouse Medal and is awarded to recognize and encourage outstanding experimental or theoretical contributions to condensed matter and materials physics. This medal is awarded annually on the basis of outstanding experimental or theoretical contributions to condensed matter physics. An eligible candidate must have performed their research primarily with a Canadian Institution.
References
{{Reflist|35em}}
External links
- [http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/brockhouse.html Bertram Brockhouse, the Triple-axis Spectrometer, and Neutron Spectroscopy ], from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
- {{Nobelprize|name=Bertram N. Brockhouse}} including the Nobel Lecture, December 8, 1994 Slow Neutron Spectroscopy and the Grand Atlas of the Physical World
{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1994 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brockhouse, Bertram}}
Category:Scientists from Lethbridge
Category:Canadian nuclear physicists
Category:University of Toronto alumni
Category:University of British Columbia Faculty of Science alumni
Category:Academic staff of McMaster University
Category:Nobel laureates in Physics
Category:Canadian Nobel laureates
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
Category:Companions of the Order of Canada
Category:Canadian fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners