Frank Allen, (1874 – 19 November 1965) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

academic and physicist, specializing in physiological optics.

Biography

Born in

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, Frank Allen received his bachelor's degree in 1895 from the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English language, English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universiti ...

with highest honours in physics and chemistry and then his M.A. there in 1897. In 1902 he received his PhD in physics from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

with a thesis on physiological optics. In 1904 Allen accepted the founding chair of the physics department at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...

, serving as the head of the physics department until his retirement in 1944. In his career he published about 60 scientific papers, most of which concerned physiological optics and the physics of the other mammalian senses. He was also the author of two critically acclaimed books, ''The Universe, from Crystal Spheres to Relativity'' (1931) and ''Responses of the Organism to Stimulation'' (1971). In 1912, he was made a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

. He was awarded the Society's

Henry Marshall Tory Medal The Henry Marshall Tory Medal is an award of the Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des scienc ...

in 1944.

Legacy

Frank Allen and his wife had a daughter, the artist Lillian B. Allen, and two sons, one of whom was John Frank Allen, a noted low-temperature physicist. The Allen Building on the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry Campus is named in honour of Frank Allen.

References

1874 births 1965 deaths Canadian physicists Cornell University alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Academic staff of the University of Manitoba University of New Brunswick alumni {{Canada-scientist-stub