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EDWARD VICTOR APPLETON (6 September 1892 to 21 April 1965)
Physicist and pioneer in radiophysics. Awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer" (the ionosphere). |
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JOHN DOUGLAS COCKCROFT (27 May 1897 to 18 September 1967)
Physicist who shared with Ernest Walton the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus. After the war, converted RAF Harwell to AERE Harwell for atomic research and became the first Director on 9 November 1945. |
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ALEXANDER (Alec) WALTER MERRISON (20 March 1924 to 19 February 1989)
British physicist. Professor in experimental physics at Liverpool University and first director of the Daresbury Nuclear Physics Laboratory. |
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HAROLD MONTAGUE (Monty) FINNISTON (15 August 1912 to 2 February 1991)
British metallurgist and industrial administrator. |
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ANTHONY MILNER LANE (27 July 1928 to 9 February 2011)
Theoretical nuclear physicist; studied under Rudolf Peierls at Birmingham; met Einstein and Oppenheimer at Princeton 1954; joined Theoretical Physics Division (Hangar 8) May 1953. |
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WALTER CHARLES MARSHALL (5 March 1932 to 20 February 1996)
Theoretical physicist; studied under Rudolf Peierls at Birmingham; Deputy Director of AERE Harwell (1966), Director (1968), Deputy Chairman UKAEA (1975), Chairman UKAEA (1981), Chairman of the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB, 1982), Chairman of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO, 1989). |
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RUDOLF (Rudy) ERNST PEIERLS (5 June 1907 to 19 September 1995)
Wrote a paper explaining how a uranium fission bomb could become a weapon, a paper which let to the Manhattan Project. After the war, professor of physics at Birmingham University until 1963 when he moved to the University of Oxford.
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THOMAS GERALD (Gerry) PICKAVANCE (19 October 1915 to 12 November 1991)
Key to the development of Nimrod, and the first Director of Rutherford High Energy Laboratory. |
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GODFREY HARRY STAFFORD (15 April 1920 to 29 July 2013)
Godfrey Stafford was one of the leaders in the creation of the laboratory, and in the diversification of its role to meet the evolving needs of Big Science. He worked in partnership with other directors in the interests of laboratories round the world, including CERN, where he was highly regarded and held several important positions, including chair of the Scientific Policy Committee. |
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GEOFFREY (Geoff) MANNING (31 August 1929 to 21 December 2006)
A renowned nuclear physicist who became the director of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory has died, aged 77. Geoff Manning, who grew up in a north London council house, was the laboratory's director between 1979 and 1986. After gaining a place at Tottenham Grammar School and then London's Imperial College, he married his schoolgirl sweetheart Anita in 1951 and went on to gain a PhD in nuclear physics. He emigrated to Canada with his young family in 1956 to take up a post with the Canadian Atomic Energy Company in Chalk River, and later at the California Institute of Technology, where he worked with many leading physicists including Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman. Returning to the UK in 1960, Dr Manning joined the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell and the family moved to Abingdon. He moved into the new field of particle physics in 1965, joining the Rutherford Laboratory as group leader. Over the next two decades he took on several roles at the lab, before finally becoming director in 1979. He is credited with ushering in a new era of research for the facility -- attracting funding from across the world and overseeing the development of a world-class neutron source, ISIS, opened by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1985. The following year he was awarded the CBE in the New Year's Honours List, and also scooped the Glazebrook medal and prize by the Institute of Physics for services to science. He was also chairman of the DTI Parallel and Novel Architectures Sub Committee, a member of Imperial College's Visiting Committee, a member of the DTI/SERC Systems Architecture Committee and a non-executive director of Recognition Systems. After more than 20 years at the Rutherford he left to pursue a career in industry as chairman of Active Memory Technology Ltd from 1986 to 1992. At the end of his formal career he remained an honorary scientist at Rutherford and was a visiting scientist in the USA. He never fully retired, spending his last years making silverware, building furniture and teaching his eight grandchildren DIY and business skills. Dr Manning was also a competitive sportsman, and enjoyed skiing, playing squash and golf. As well as Anita, his wife of 55 years, he leaves three children -- Howard, Ian and Karen -- and eight grandchildren. Article published on 4th January 2007 by The Oxford Mail: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/1101839.dr-geoff-manning-cbe/ |
