George Raymond "Ray" Satchler (14 June 1926, London, UK – 28 March 2010,

Shelton, Washington Shelton is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, Washington, United States. Shelton is the westernmost city on Puget Sound. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census. Shelton has a council–manager form of government and was the ...

, U.S.) was a British-American nuclear physicist.

Biography

After serving from 1944 to 1948 the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, Satchler studied at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where he graduated in 1951 with a B.A. and an M.A. and in 1955 with a doctorate in physics. His thesis advisor was John Ashley Spiers. As a postdoc Satchler was from 1956 to 1957 a research associate at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and from 1956 to 1959 a research fellow at

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

. He was a physicist at

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...

, from 1959 to 1996, when he retired. (This obituary erroneously states that Satchler was named a Fellow of the APS in 1976 — the correct year is 1961.) From 1994 to 2005 he was a professor at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

. He was the author or co-author of over 275 papers. Satchler 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 ...

(APS) in 1961. In 1976 he was named a Corporate Fellow of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which at that time was operated by the

Union Carbide Corporation Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) is an American chemical company headquartered in Seadrift, Texas. It has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company since 2001. Union Carbide produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more f ...

under a contract with the U.S. federal government. In 1977 he received, jointly with

Stuart Thomas Butler Stuart Thomas Butler AAS (4 July 1926 – 15 May 1982) was an Australian nuclear physicist who served as Director of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission from 1977 until 1982, and was noted for his contributions to theoretical physics incl ...

, the Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics for "their discovery that direct nuclear reactions can be used to determine angular momenta of discreet nuclear states and for their systematic exploitation of this discovery permitting the determination of spins, parities and quantitative properties of nuclear wave functions." In Yorkshire in 1948 Satchler married Margaret Patricia "Pat" Enid Gibson. Upon his death he was survived by two daughters and a grandson.

Selected publications

Articles

* * * * * * * * *

Books

* with David M. Brink: ''Angular momentum'' 1962. 2nd edition 1971. 3rd edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1993, ISBN 0-19-851759-9 * ''Introduction to nuclear reactions'' 1980
2nd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990, ISBN 0-333-51484-X. * ''Direct nuclear reactions''. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1983, ISBN 0-19-851269-4.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Satchler, G. Raymond 1926 births 2010 deaths Alumni of the University of Oxford 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists American nuclear physicists 20th-century British physicists 21st-century British physicists British emigrants to the United States English nuclear physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Oak Ridge National Laboratory people British theoretical physicists