William Lawrence Bragg

William Lawrence Bragg, son of William Henry Bragg, was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on March 31, 1890

He was educated at St. Peter's College in his birthplace, moving on to Adelaide University to take his degree in mathematics with first-class honours in 1908. He came to England with his father in 1909 and attended Trinity College, Cambridge, as an Allen Scholar, taking first-class honours in the Natural Science Tripos in 1912. In the autumn of that year he started on the Max von Laue phenomenon and published his first paper on the subject in November

From 1912 to 1914 he had been working with his father, and the results of their work were published in X-rays and Crystal Structure (1915). It was this work which earned them jointly the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. He was appointed Langworthy Professor of Physics at Manchester University in 1919.

Having been awarded the Nobel Prize at the very early age of 25, W. Lawrence Bragg was the youngest-ever laureate. The very rare opportunity of celebrating a golden jubilee as a Nobel Laureate was given special attention during the December ceremonies at Stockholm in 1965, when Sir Lawrence, at the invitation of the Nobel Foundation, delivered a lecture - the first Nobel Guest Lecture - on developments in his field of interest during the last fifty years.

William Lawrence Bragg died in 1971.

 

X-RAYS  - HISTORY  - MAX VON LAUE  - WILLIAM H. BRAGG  - WILLIAM L. BRAGG  - PRINCIPLES

 

 

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