Philip Burton Moon FRS (17 May 1907 – 9 October 1994) was a British

nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

. He is most remembered for his research work in

atomic physics Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Atomic physics typically refers to the study of atomic structure and the interaction between atoms. It is primarily concerned wit ...

and nuclear physics. He is one of the British scientists who participated in the United States'

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

, Britain's

Tube Alloys Tube Alloys was the research and development programme authorised by the United Kingdom, with participation from Canada, to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War. Starting before the Manhattan Project in the United States, the Bri ...

, and was involved in nuclear weapon development. Moon made outstanding and original experimental contributions which stimulated the development of whole fields of research involving neutrons, gamma rays and novel methods of studying chemical reactions ('Mechanically propelled molecular beams: techniques and opportunities', Moon, P.B. Ralls, M.P., Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 423, 361 371, 1989).

Early life and education

Philip Burton Moon was born in 1907, attended Leyton Sixth Form College, and in 1925 entered

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (historically known as "Sussex College" and today referred to informally as "Sidney") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1 ...

. He became a research student in the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

under

Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who was a pioneering researcher in both Atomic physics, atomic and nuclear physics. He has been described as "the father of nu ...

. From 1928 to 1931 he worked with

Mark Oliphant Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and in the development of nuclear weapon ...

on the collision of atoms with solids. Rutherford called him "Oliphant's satellite" and that influence remained with him for decades.

Cavendish Laboratory

He worked at Cavendish Laboratory in the mid-1930s, where he shared a room with Australian physicist Mark Oliphant. Both later joined the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

; Moon in 1938.

Tube Alloys and Manhattan Project

During World War II Moon was part of the

MAUD Committee The MAUD Committee was a British scientific working group formed during the Second World War. It was established to perform the research required to determine if an atomic bomb was feasible. The name MAUD came from a strange line in a telegram fr ...

that confirmed the feasibility of an atomic bomb and then became part of the British delegation to the

, where amongst other things he did work on designing instrumentation for measuring the eventual bomb test. His wife, Winifred Moon, was a staff worker at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. File:Moon-philip.jpg, Philip Moon's Los Alamos badge File:Moon-winifred f.jpg, Winifred Moon's Los Alamos badge

Career at Birmingham University

After the war he was made Poynting Professor of Physics at Birmingham in 1946, succeeding Oliphant but receiving the appointment only after the first choice (

Cecil Powell Cecil Frank Powell (5 December 1903 – 9 August 1969) was an English particle physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1950 for heading the team that developed the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the result ...

) had been rejected at the last minute for being a communist. He held the position until 1973. In 1950 Moon was the first person to detect

gamma ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares. It consists o ...

fluorescence Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with colore ...

; however his results were not considered statistically significant enough and it would be several years before they were proven. Moon was invited to become the honorary life president of the Poynting Physical Society, at the University of Birmingham, in 1975. In 1991, Moon was the recipient of the

Hughes Medal The Hughes Medal is a silver-gilt medal awarded by the Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. T ...

from the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. His papers are held at the University of Birmingham Special Collections.

References

External links

P. B. Moon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Philip 1907 births 1994 deaths British physicists Manhattan Project people Academics of the University of Birmingham Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge