Alan Douglas Martin FRS (born 4 December 1937) is a British

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, currently Emeritus Professor of Physics at the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

.Staff profile
Durham University, retrieved 2016-02-28

Education

Martin was educated at the

Eltham College Eltham College is a private day school situated in Mottingham, southeast London. Eltham and Mottingham once formed part of the same parish, hence its name. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC). Early history ...

. He received his BSc (1958) and PhD (1962) degrees from the

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Work

Martin is known for his research in the theory of

elementary particle In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a subatomic particle that is not composed of other particles. The Standard Model presently recognizes seventeen distinct particles—twelve fermions and five bosons. As a c ...

s, which includes studies of mesic atoms,

kaon In particle physics, a kaon, also called a K meson and denoted , is any of a group of four mesons distinguished by a quantum number called strangeness. In the quark model they are understood to be bound states of a strange quark (or antiquark ...

physics, pi–pi scattering, hadron spectroscopy and the anomalous magnetic moment of the

muon A muon ( ; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 '' e'' and a spin of ''ħ'', but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a ...

. His work on the

W boson In particle physics, the W and Z bosons are vector bosons that are together known as the weak bosons or more generally as the intermediate vector bosons. These elementary particles mediate the weak interaction; the respective symbols are , , an ...

and

top quark The top quark, sometimes also referred to as the truth quark, (symbol: t) is the most massive of all observed elementary particles. It derives its mass from its coupling to the Higgs field. This coupling is very close to unity; in the Standard ...

was used in early

collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator that brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Compared to other particle accelerators in which the moving particles collide with a stationary matter target, collid ...

experiments. His ongoing projects include the determination of the parton distributions of the proton and studies in small x and diffractive physics, which are relevant to the experiments at the

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...

. He is an author of well-known textbooks on

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

. ''Quarks and Leptons'', co-authored with Francis Halzen, is a standard text around the world. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where: "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."

Awards and honours

Martin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2004. He was awarded the 2007 Max Born Medal and Prize ''for his pioneering research in the understanding of the strong interaction, in particular his theoretical work on the internal structure of the proton.''Leading Durham physicist wins prestigious international award
Durham University

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Alan Douglas Academics of Durham University Fellows of the Royal Society Living people 21st-century British physicists 1937 births Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at Eltham College Alumni of University College London