Mark Oliphant
Mark Oliphant.
Mark Oliphant (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist who made the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion. Born and raised in Adelaide, he studied in England under Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. There, he used a particle accelerator on deuterons, and discovered helium-3 and tritium. During the Second World War he headed the group at the University of Birmingham that created the cavity magnetron, which made microwave radar possible. He served on the MAUD Committee, which found that an atomic bomb was feasible, and on the Manhattan Project with his friend Ernest Lawrence at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, developing electromagnetic isotope separation. After the war, he returned to Australia as the first director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University. He retired from the university in 1967, and served as Governor of South Australia from 1971 to 1976.
Mark Oliphant (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist who made the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion. Born and raised in Adelaide, he studied in England under Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. There, he used a particle accelerator on deuterons, and discovered helium-3 and tritium. During the Second World War he headed the group at the University of Birmingham that created the cavity magnetron, which made microwave radar possible. He served on the MAUD Committee, which found that an atomic bomb was feasible, and on the Manhattan Project with his friend Ernest Lawrence at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, developing electromagnetic isotope separation. After the war, he returned to Australia as the first director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Australian National University. He retired from the university in 1967, and served as Governor of South Australia from 1971 to 1976.
