Tom W. Bonner
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Tom Wilkerson Bonner (19 October 1910,
Greenville, Texas Greenville ( ) is the county seat of and the most populous city in Hunt County, Texas, United States, located in Northeast Texas approximately northeast of Dallas, Texas, Dallas and northwest of Canton, Texas, Canton. As of the 2020 United Stat ...
– 6 December 1961
Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
) was an American experimental physicist who developed important instruments and techniques for neutron physics and nuclear physics (
Bonner sphere A Bonner sphere is a device used to determine the energy spectrum of a neutron beam. The method was first described in 1960 by Rice University's Bramblett, Ewing and Tom W. Bonner and employs thermal neutron detectors embedded in moderating spher ...
).


Biography

Bonner earned his bachelor's degree in physics from SMU in 1931 and his
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
from
Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...
in 1934. In 1934–1936, he was a National Research Council fellow at
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
. At Rice University, he became an instructor in 1936, a professor in 1945, and chair of the physics department in 1947. In the academic year 1938–1939, he was a Guggenheim fellow. 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 ...
in 1941. From 1941 to 1946, he did radar research at the
MIT Radiation Lab The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was a microwave and radar research laboratory located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was first created in October 1940 and operated until 3 ...
. Bonner was an associate editor of the ''
Review of Scientific Instruments ''Review of Scientific Instruments'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Institute of Physics. Its area of interest is scientific instruments, apparatus, and techniques. According to the ''Journal Citation Repo ...
'' in 1946–1949 and in 1952–1955. He was an associate editor of ''
Physical Review ''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The journal was established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the Ame ...
'' from 1951 until his death. In 1959, he was elected a member of the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
. In 1964, the Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics was established in his memory. He did important work in the development of high-pressure cloud chambers for the study of neutrons produced by accelerators. He invented a neutron-counter-ratio technique for the determination of neutron emission thresholds. He also invented a sphere-moderated
neutron spectrometer Neutron spectroscopy is a spectroscopic method of measuring atomic and magnetic motions by measuring the kinetic energy of emitted neutrons. The measured neutrons may be emitted directly (for example, by nuclear reactions), or they may scatter off ...
.Bonner, T. W., & Mills, J. W. R. (1967). Semiconductor radiation detector for use in nuclear well logging. U.S. Patent No. 3,312,823. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In 1937, he married Jara Prasilova; they had three children. On 6 December 1961, at the age of 51 Bonner died in Houston, Texas of
acute myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is retr ...
.


Patents and publications

*Bonner, T. W., & Brubaker, W. M. (1936). The disintegration of nitrogen by neutrons. Physical Review. 49(3): 223. *Bent, R. D., T. W. Bonner, and R. F. Sippel. (1955). "Pair Spectrometer Measurements of the Radiations from Excited States of Light Nuceli." Physical Review. 98(5): 1237. *Bent, R. D., T. W. Bonner, J. H. McCrary, W. A. Ranken, and R. F. Sippel. (1955). "Gamma Rays from the Deuteron Bombardment of Be9, B10, N14, and F19." Physical Review. 99(3): 710. *Taylor, H. L., Lönsjö, O., & Bonner, T. W. (1955). Nonelastic scattering cross sections for fast neutrons. Physical Review. 100(1): 174. *Bonner, T. W., and J. C. Slattery. (1959). "Nonelastic Scattering Cross Section for 8-20 Mev Neutrons." Physical Review. 113(4): 1088. *Bramblett, Richard L., Ewing, Ronald I., & Bonner, T. W. (1960). A new type of neutron spectrometer. Nuclear Instruments and Methods, 9(1), 1-12. *Bonner, T. W. (1961). Measurements of neutron spectra from fission. Nuclear Physics. 23, 116–121. *Caldwell, R. L., & Bonner, T. W. (1961). Measurement of gamma ray energy due to inelastic neutron scattering. (No. GB 862434). *Romain, F. S., Bonner, T. W., Bramblett, R. L., & Hanna, J. (1962). Low-Energy Neutrons from the Reaction Be 9 (α, n) C 12. Physical Review. 126(5): 1794. *Bonner, T. W., & Mills, J. W. R. (1967). Semiconductor radiation detector for use in nuclear well logging. U.S. Patent No. 3,312,823. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.


References


External links


Bonner Book Awards, Rice University Physics & Astronomy Department
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonner, Tom W. 1910 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American physicists American nuclear physicists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Greenville, Texas Rice University alumni Rice University faculty Southern Methodist University alumni 20th-century American inventors Fellows of the American Physical Society California Institute of Technology fellows