William Roy Piggott

William Roy Piggott ( born July 18, 1914 in London, † 20 May, 2008 Cambridge ) was a British physicist.

Life

WRPiggott was born as one of five children on 18 July 1914 in South London. He died on 20 May 2008 in Cambridge. For his service in World War II, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of 1953 the British Empire.

Training

He was educated at the Royal Liberty School and King's College. There he worked as an assistant to the ionospheric explorer Sir Edward Appleton, but dealt first with research on radon. After an accident with this radioactive gas, he moved to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge and started over there with the ionospheric research.

World War II

During World War II he worked at the Radio Research Station in Slough. In 1945 he was sent from Appleton to Germany to report on the local relevant research institutions and their results. After a thorough investigation, he decided independently and differently from the order given him, one in Austria stranded, directed by Walter Dieminger group from the American zone in Austria to transfer to the British Zone by Germany in order to continue to operate under British supervision. His signed by Appleton marching orders he interpreted as corresponding transfer under which he borrowed from British occupation departments in Austria around 100 trucks with personnel. He transported initially unopposed personnel and material from Ried in Upper Austria to Lindau ( calibration field ). Because of this high-handed actions he received while a " severe reprimand " her organizational result, however, had stock. The research group was later transferred to the Max Planck Society Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy, now the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.

Research

Piggott was considered one of the leading ionospheric researchers of his time and a pioneer in the study of the D- layer. At the preparation of the International Geophysical Year Piggott was the International Union of Radio Science ( URSI ) mainly involved in the WorldWide Soundings Committee, the rules for the interpretation and evaluation of the standard measurements of the ionosphere developed. They are recorded in the book edited by Roy Piggott and Karl Rawer URSI Handbook and as international rules to today's recognized standard of all ionospheric measurements. Piggott realized beyond the possibilities of the Polar Regions for Ionospheric and initiated the British research program at Halley Bay ( Antarctica ). He was for two decades, one of the leaders of this project and from 1973 until his retirement in 1979 head of atmospheric sciences at the British Antarctic Survey. 1985 is named after him, the Antarctic Peninsula Piggott.

External links and sources

• Roy Piggott: international leader in ionospheric physics. Obituary of the Times, June 30, 2008
• The period after 1945, Remarks by Prof. Dr. Karl Rawer