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Sir John Douglas Cockcroft OM KCB CBE FRS (27 May 1897 – 18 September 1967) was a British physicist who shared with Ernest Walton the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1951 was awarded jointly to Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton "for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles"
May 23, 2024 · Sir John Douglas Cockcroft was a British physicist, joint winner, with Ernest T.S. Walton of Ireland, of the 1951 Nobel Prize for Physics for pioneering the use of particle accelerators in studying the atomic nucleus.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Facts. Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive. Sir John Douglas Cockcroft. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1951. Born: 27 May 1897, Todmorden, United Kingdom. Died: 18 September 1967, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Affiliation at the time of the award: Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, Berkshire, United Kingdom.
Cockcroft, who was both a student and Fellow at St John’s, is perhaps best known for the pioneering 1932 experiment in which he and his fellow researcher, Ernest Walton, transformed the nucleus of a lithium atom by bombarding it with high-energy particles.
John Cockcroft won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics with his colleague Ernest Walton for producing the first artificial nuclear disintegration in history. Cockcroft & Walton designed and built the first ‘high energy’ particle accelerator.
Learn about the life and achievements of John Cockcroft, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics 1951 with Ernest Walton for their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles. Discover how he became Rutherford's student in Cambridge, designed and built particle accelerators, and contributed to the development of nuclear physics.
