Thomas Gerald Pickavance (19 October 1915 – 12 November 1991) 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 ...

who was a leading authority on the design and use of particle accelerators. He was generally known as Gerry Pickavance.

Life and career

He was born in St Helens, Lancashire, the son of estate agent William Pickavance and his wife Ethel and was educated at the University of Liverpool. He worked on the development of the University of Liverpool cyclotron and carried out research with it on the Tube Alloys project during the Second World War. He was later responsible for the construction of the

Harwell Harwell may refer to: People * Harwell (surname) * Harwell Hamilton Harris (1903–1990), American architect Places * Harwell, Nottinghamshire, England, a hamlet *Harwell, Oxfordshire, England, a village **RAF Harwell, a World War II RAF airfield, ...

cyclotron and became leader of the Accelerator Group. During his time at Harwell he led research into new accelerators, which led to the installation in 1957 of the 50 MeV proton linear accelerator and the 8 GeV Nimrod

Proton Synchrotron The Proton Synchrotron (PS, sometimes also referred to as CPS) is a particle accelerator at CERN. It is CERN's first synchrotron, beginning its operation in 1959. For a brief period the PS was the world's highest energy particle accelerator. It ...

at the new Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, of which he was appointed the first Director. He was later Director of the Nuclear Physics Division of the Science Research Council and Chairman of the European Committee on Future Accelerators. In 1965 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 1976 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1979 he was awarded the

Glazebrook Medal The Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize is awarded annually by the Institute of Physics to recognise leadership in the field of physics. It was established in 1966 and named in honour of Sir Richard T. Glazebrook, the first president of the Insti ...

by the Institute of Physics. He died in 1991. He had married Alice Boulton and had two sons and a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickavance, Thomas Gerald 1915 births 1991 deaths People from St Helens, Merseyside Alumni of the University of Liverpool British physicists Nuclear physicists Fellows of the Royal Society Commanders of the Order of the British Empire