Co-discovery of tritium, helium-3 and nuclear fusion
Development of microwave radar
Awards
Fellow of the Royal Society (1937)
Hughes Medal (1943)
Faraday Medal (1948)
James Cook Medal (1974)
ANZAAS Medal (1979)
Scientific career
Institutions
Cavendish Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
University of Birmingham
Australian National University
Thesis
The Neutralization of Positive Ions at Metal Surfaces, and the Emission of Secondary Electrons (1929)
Doctoral advisor
Ernest Rutherford
Doctoral students
Ernest William Titterton
Alan Howard Ward
27th Governor of South Australia
In office 1 December 1971 – 30 November 1976
Monarch
Elizabeth II
Premier
Don Dunstan
Lieutenant Governor
Sir Mellis Napier (1971–1973)
Sir Walter Crocker (1973–1976)
Preceded by
Sir James Harrison
Succeeded by
Sir Douglas Nicholls
Personal details
Political party
Australia Party (until 1977) Australian Democrats (from 1977)
Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, AC, KBE, FRS, FAA, FTSE (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 weapons.
Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Oliphant graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1922. He was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1927 on the strength of the research he had done on mercury, and went to England, where he studied under Sir Ernest Rutherford at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. There, he used a particle accelerator to fire heavy hydrogen nuclei (deuterons) at various targets. He discovered the respective nuclei of helium-3 (helions) and of tritium (tritons). He also discovered that when they reacted with each other, the particles that were released had far more energy than they started with. Energy had been liberated from inside the nucleus, and he realised that this was a result of nuclear fusion.
Oliphant left the Cavendish Laboratory in 1937 to become the Poynting Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham. He attempted to build a 60-inch (150 cm) cyclotron at the university, but its completion was postponed by the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in 1939. He became involved with the development of radar, heading a group at the University of Birmingham that included John Randall and Harry Boot. They created a radical new design, the cavity magnetron, that made microwave radar possible. Oliphant also formed part of the MAUD Committee, which reported in July 1941, that an atomic bomb was not only feasible, but might be produced as early as 1943. Oliphant was instrumental in spreading the word of this finding in the United States, thereby starting what became the Manhattan Project. Later in the war, he worked on it with his friend Ernest Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California, developing electromagnetic isotope separation, which provided the fissile component of the Little Boy atomic bomb used in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945.
After the war, Oliphant returned to Australia as the first director of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the new Australian National University (ANU), where he initiated the design and construction of the world's largest (500 megajoule) homopolar generator. He retired in 1967, but was appointed Governor of South Australia on the advice of Premier Don Dunstan. He became the first South Australian-born governor of South Australia. He assisted in the founding of the Australian Democrats political party, and he was the chairman of the meeting in Melbourne in 1977, at which the party was launched. Late in life he witnessed his wife, Rosa, suffer before her death in 1987, and he became an advocate for voluntary euthanasia. He died in Canberra in 2000.
Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, AC, KBE, FRS, FAA, FTSE (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an...
MarkOliphant College is a public school in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia. It teaches students from birth to year 12 and is named...
prompted Britain to create an atomic bomb project, known as Tube Alloys. MarkOliphant, an Australian physicist working in Britain, was instrumental in making...
physics, attracting students like John Cockcroft, Norman Feather, and MarkOliphant. Chadwick followed his discovery of the neutron by measuring its mass...
including Sir Howard Florey (co-developer of medicinal penicillin), Sir MarkOliphant (a nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project), and Sir Keith...
(Dame Roma Mitchell) appointed, the first non-British governor, Sir MarkOliphant, and later the first Indigenous governor, Sir Douglas Nicholls. He enacted...
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the 2017 debut novel by Gail Honeyman, and the winner of the 2017 Costa Debut Novel Award. The story centres on...
Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir MarkOliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under...
updated version of the equipment firing deuterium rather than hydrogen, MarkOliphant discovered helium-3 and tritium, and that heavy hydrogen nuclei could...
fire deuterons at various targets. Working with Rutherford and others, MarkOliphant discovered the nuclei of helium-3 (helions) and tritium (tritons), the...
apparatus. An early example of this sort of device was built by Sir MarkOliphant at the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian...
Blackett, laboratory fusion of hydrogen isotopes was accomplished by MarkOliphant in 1932. In the remainder of that decade, the theory of the main cycle...
doctorate under Rutherford's supervision in 1928. With Ernest Walton and MarkOliphant he built what became known as a Cockcroft–Walton generator. Cockcroft...
Using a linear accelerator driven by a Cockcroft–Walton generator, MarkOliphant led an experiment that fired deuterium ions into a deuterium-infused...
insignificant compared to the cost of the war." By March 1940, encouraged by MarkOliphant, they wrote the Frisch–Peierls memorandum in two parts, "On the construction...
Germany working at the University of Birmingham under the direction of MarkOliphant. The memorandum argued that a small sphere of pure uranium-235 could...
University of Manchester, then at the Mond Laboratory at Cambridge. In 1937, MarkOliphant, the newly appointed Australian professor of physics at the University...
Cavendish, he studied with MarkOliphant, who particularly influenced him to study nuclear physics. Chaudhry and Oliphant carried out research in artificial...
pound (0.45 kg) of enriched uranium to work. The memorandum is given to MarkOliphant, who in turn hands it over to Sir Henry Tizard. April 10: MAUD Committee...
Clan Oliphant is a Highland Scottish clan. Although this remains the subject of ongoing research the earliest member of this Clan known to date is Roger...
feasibility of atomic bombs. Thomson, at Imperial College London, and MarkOliphant, an Australian physicist at the University of Birmingham, were each...
hydrogen bombs. Tritium was first detected in 1934 by Ernest Rutherford, MarkOliphant and Paul Harteck after bombarding deuterium with deuterons (deuterium...
would need enough power to illuminate half of Chicago. During 1950, Sir MarkOliphant, an Australian physicist and first director of the Research School of...
been Australian-born. The first South Australian-born governor was Sir MarkOliphant (appointed 1971), and the first Aboriginal governor was Sir Douglas...
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Oliphant (born 24 July 1935) is an Australian-born American artist whose career spanned more than sixty years. His body of work as...
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