John Mitchell Nuttall (21 July 1890 – 28 January 1958) was an English

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, born in

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax. In 2011 it had a population of 15,481. Todm ...

. He is best remembered for his work with the physicist

Hans Geiger Johannes Wilhelm "Hans" Geiger (; ; 30 September 1882 – 24 September 1945) was a German physicist. He is best known as the co-inventor of the detector component of the Geiger counter and for the Geiger–Marsden experiment which discover ...

, which resulted in the

Geiger–Nuttall law In nuclear physics, the Geiger–Nuttall law or Geiger–Nuttall rule relates the decay constant of a radioactive isotope with the energy of the alpha particles emitted. Roughly speaking, it states that short-lived isotopes emit more energetic alp ...

of radioactive decay. Nuttall graduated from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

in 1911 and was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Physics at the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. During World War I, he served as a captain with the Royal Engineers. In 1921 he became Assistant Director of the University of Manchester's Physical Laboratories, a post he held until 1955. G. D. Rochester, ''John Mitchell Nuttall'' (1890–1958), ''

Nuclear Physics 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 ...

'', volume 6, March–May 1958, Pages 541-542

References

English physicists People from Todmorden Alumni of the University of Manchester Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of World War I 1890 births 1958 deaths {{UK-physicist-stub