Alvin Boyd Cardwell (October 16, 1902, Oral,

Roane County, Tennessee Roane County is a county of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,404. Its county seat is Kingston. Roane County is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Roane County was for ...

– September 8, 1992,

Kingston, Tennessee Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Roane County, Tennessee, United States. This city is thirty-six miles southwest of Knoxville. It had a population of 5,934 at the 2010 United States census, and is included in the Harriman Micropolit ...

) (partially based on the 1993 obituary written by James C. Legg) was an American experimental physicist, specializing in "thermionic and photoelectric emission of electrons from crystalline metals."

Biography

A. B. Cardwell graduated in 1925 with a bachelor's degree from the

University of Chattanooga The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UT-Chattanooga, UTC, or Chattanooga) is a public university in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It was founded in 1886 and is one of four universities and two other affiliated institutions in the ...

. At the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

he graduated in physics with an M.S. in 1927 and a Ph.D. in 1930. His Ph.D. thesis was published in the ''

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sci ...

''. In December 1930 in Roane County, Tennessee, he married Edna Evangeline Zirkle. At

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

he was an assistant professor from 1930 to 1935 and an associate professor from 1935 to 1936. In January 1936 he was elected a Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

. At

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public insti ...

(KSU) he was the head of the physics department from 1936 to 1944 and from 1946 to 1952. From 1944 to 1946 he was on leave absence to work on the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 31,402 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area. O ...

. During the late 1930s until his departure from Kansas in 1944 he was the volunteer weather observer for the

United States Weather Bureau The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

. From April 1939 to 1944 the official weather station was in the backyard of Alvin and Edna Cardwell's home at 1928 Humboldt Street in

Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County, Kansas, Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue ...

. After WW II, as head of KSU's physics department, Cardwell hired several young physicists with doctoral degrees. These physicists established physics research at KSU and in the late 1940s the department was authorized to grant M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. From 1952 to 1955 Cardwell was an associate dean in KSU's School of Arts & Sciences. In 1955 an illness made him incapable of continuing as associate dean. Upon his recovery he returned to the physics department and in 1957 resumed the departmental headship, continuing in that capacity until 1967. He remained a faculty member until 1972 when he retired as professor emeritus. In 1972, he and his wife returned to Tennessee. The couple had two children.

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardwell, Alvin B. 1902 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American physicists Manhattan Project people University of Tennessee at Chattanooga alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Tulane University faculty Kansas State University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society People from Roane County, Tennessee