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Mark Oliphant
Sign in to saveAlso known as Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, Marcus 'Mark' Laurence Elwin Oliphant, Mark Laurence Oliphant, Mark L. Oliphant
nuclear physicist, Governor of South Australia (1901–2000)
OverviewAI-generated
Mark Oliphant was an Australian and American physicist and governor. Born in Adelaide in 1901, he was educated at the University of Adelaide and the University of Cambridge. He worked as a nuclear physicist and served as the Governor of South Australia. His professional affiliations included the University of Birmingham, the Australian National University, and the University of Adelaide. He was a member of the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science.
Oliphant participated in the Manhattan Project and was influenced by his doctoral advisor, Ernest Rutherford. He supervised doctoral student Ernest William Titterton. His notable works include *Rutherford*, *Challenge to Australia*, and *The Atomic age*. He received the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the Hughes Medal, the Rutherford Medal and Prize, and the Faraday Medal. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Oliphant died in Canberra in 2000.
Synthesized by Vinony from 31 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Key facts
- Born
- Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant , ( 1901-10-08 ) 8 October 1901, Adelaide , South Australia, Australia
- Died
- 14 July 2000 (2000-07-14) (aged 98), Canberra , Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Education
- University of Adelaide Trinity College, Cambridge
- Known for
- Co-discovery of tritium , helium-3 and nuclear fusion Development of microwave radar
- Awards
- Fellow of the Royal Society (1937) Hughes Medal (1943) Faraday Medal (1948) James Cook Medal (1974) ANZAAS Medal (1979)
- Institutions
- Cavendish Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of Birmingham Australian National University
- Thesis
- The Neutralization of Positive Ions at Metal Surfaces, and the Emission of Secondary Electrons (1929)
- Doctoral advisor
- Ernest Rutherford
- Doctoral students
- Ernest William Titterton Alan Howard Ward
- Monarch
- Elizabeth II
- Premier
- Don Dunstan
- Lieutenant governor
- Sir Mellis Napier (1971–1973) Sir Walter Crocker (1973–1976)
- Preceded by
- Sir James Harrison
- Succeeded by
- Sir Douglas Nicholls
- Party
- Australia Party (until 1977), Australian Democrats (from 1977)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Marcus
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Adelaide
- Place of death
- Canberra
- Occupation
- nuclear physicist
- Position held
- Governor of South Australia
- Educated at
- University of Adelaide
- Employer
- University of Adelaide
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Participant in
- Manhattan Project
- Doctoral advisor
- Ernest Rutherford
- Field of work
- physics
- Image
- Sir Mark Oliphant.jpg
Show 6 more facts
- date of birth
- 1901-10-08
- date of death
- 2000-07-14
- Commons category
- Mark Oliphant
- member of
- Australian Academy of Science
- nominated for
- Nobel Prize in Physics
- influenced by
- Ernest Rutherford
Sources (11)
via Wikidata · CC0
~37 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and in the development of nuclear weapons.
Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Oliphant graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1922. He was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1927 on the strength of the research he had done on mercury, and went to England where he studied under Sir Ernest Rutherford at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. There, he discovered the respective nuclei of helium-3 (helions) and of tritium (tritons). He also discovered that when they reacted with each other, the particles that were released had far more energy than they started with. Energy had been liberated from inside the nucleus, and he realised that this was a result of nuclear fusion.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mark Oliphant” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.