Charles Glover Barkla
Charles Glover Barkla ( born June 7, 1877 in Widnes, Lancashire, † October 23, 1944 in Edinburgh ) was a British physicist. In 1917 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Life
Charles Barkla began after visiting the Liverpool Institute in 1894 with the study of mathematics and physics at University College, Liverpool, then part of the Victoria University. After graduating in physics in 1898 he received his doctorate in 1899 and was awarded a research fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory of Trinity College, Cambridge. He changed, however, a year later at King's College in 1902 and returned back to Liverpool. He took over in 1909 a professor of physics at the University of London and moved in 1913 to the chair of natural philosophy at Edinburgh University, where he remained until his death.
Barkla married Mary Esther Cowell 1907 and had two sons and a daughter.
Work
Barkla since 1902 already dealt with the X-rays. He discovered the characteristic spectral lines of chemical elements in the X-ray range and the fluorescence proportion of scattered radiation. He also discovered the polarization of X-rays, which had great significance for the classification of X-ray radiation as an electromagnetic wave. He was awarded the 1917 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his discovery of the characteristic X- radiation of the elements ".
Awards
- Hughes Medal, Royal Society, 1917
- Nobel Prize in Physics, 1917