Sir Michael Willcox Perrin,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, FRSC (13 September 1905 – 18 August 1988) was a scientist who created the first practical

polythene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...

, directed the first British atomic bomb programme, and participated in the Allied intelligence of the Nazi atomic bomb.

Chemistry career

Born 13 September 1905 in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

, he moved to England in 1911 with his British parents, who sent him to

Twyford School Twyford School is a co-educational, independent, preparatory boarding and day school, located in the village of Twyford, Hampshire, England. History Twyford states itself to be the oldest preparatory school in the United Kingdom. It moved to i ...

and

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

, and from there to study chemistry at New College, Oxford and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. Joining Imperial Chemical Industries, Perrin led a small team that investigated high-pressure

polymerization In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many fo ...

and patented the first practical industrial method for producing

in 1935.

Atomic programme

Perrin was promoted to assist ICI's research director,

Wallace Akers Sir Wallace Alan Akers (9 September 1888 – 1 November 1954) was a British chemist and industrialist. Beginning his academic career at Oxford he specialized in physical chemistry. During the Second World War, he was the director of the Tube Al ...

. With the advent of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, between 1940 and 1941 they participated in the Government's

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 fro ...

which concluded it was feasible to build an atomic bomb. Both then moved into the secret team that would design a British atomic bomb, and they ran the key committees of

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 ...

, as it was called. After a fact-finding visit to the United States in 1942, Perrin realised that its government had, at last, recognised the significance of the atomic bomb, and saw the potential of that country now that it had properly mobilised. On arriving home he worked to persuade the government of the importance of combining with America. This was accepted; about sixty Tube Alloys scientists were sent to America in the British Mission and subsumed into the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

. Perrin remained as co-ordinator for the British Government. He was also charged with understanding the status of the German atomic bomb programme through the military intelligence services and their spy network, including interviewing the physicist

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...

after he fled occupied Denmark. Having identified and understood the significance of the Nazi heavy water plant in Norway, he ensured that efforts were made to disrupt it. He accompanied the Allied invasion force as it entered occupied Europe to confirm the actual level of understanding of German atomic research. He identified

Werner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg () (5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics. He published his work in 1925 in a breakthrough paper. In the subsequent serie ...

and his team of nuclear scientists for investigation and made sure they were brought to Britain where he could interview them and have them secretly recorded. He was also tasked with documenting the story of Britain's role in developing the atomic bomb to counterbalance the published American account, which was thought at the time to have not properly acknowledged the British work. After the war, Lord Portal was appointed to the new government post of Controller of Production (Atomic Energy) at the Ministry of Supply with Perrin as his hands-on deputy. They ran three groups: * atomic research under

John Cockcroft Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, (27 May 1897 – 18 September 1967) was a British physicist who shared with Ernest Walton the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus, and was instrumental in the development of nuclea ...

; *

atomic weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

development under

William Penney William George Penney, Baron Penney, (24 June 19093 March 1991) was an English mathematician and professor of mathematical physics at the Imperial College London and later the rector of Imperial College London. He had a leading role in the d ...

atomic reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from ...

s and

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

under Christopher Hinton. However, Perrin reported one of his most difficult experiences as being the person to whom Klaus Fuchs confessed his spying while in Cockcroft's group, in 1950. It was Perrin who was asked to manage the damage caused by that discovery. Perrin was also becoming frustrated that the civilian energy organisation was held back as a government department, and he left the Ministry for a post in private enterprise in 1951. (It was not run as a commercial enterprise until the run up to privatisation of the

AEA Technology Ricardo-AEA Ltd, trading as Ricardo Energy & Environment, was formed on November 8, 2012, when Ricardo acquired the business, operating assets and employees engaged in the business of AEA Technology Plc (AEAT, in administration) (AEA Europe), fo ...

group, after his death in 1996.)

Wellcome Trust

He moved back to ICI and then became chairman of the

Wellcome Foundation The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glax ...

, where he stayed until retirement in 1970. In this position he worked hard to secure the finances of the organisation, and directed it in the expansion of university research and training across medicine, pharmacology and allied disciplines. He received the OBE and

for his atomic work. In 1967 he was knighted for his Wellcome work, as well as his other work and directorships of professional institutions, hospitals, museums, and the

Roedean School Roedean School is an independent day and boarding school founded in 1885 in Roedean Village on the outskirts of Brighton, East Sussex, England, and governed by Royal Charter. It is for girls aged 11 to 18. The campus is situated near the Sus ...

. He died on 18 August 1988 at the age of 82.

Sources

* Obituary

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

22 August 1988
Brian Cathcart Sept 2004 accessed 20 Oct 2007
in

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, Michael 1905 births 1988 deaths Imperial Chemical Industries people British chemists British nuclear physicists Canadian people of British descent People associated with the nuclear weapons programme of the United Kingdom People educated at Twyford School People from Victoria, British Columbia People educated at Winchester College Alumni of New College, Oxford University of Toronto alumni Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry