Maurice Henry Lecorney Pryce (24 January 1913 – 24 July 2003) was a British

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 ...

. Pryce was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

to an Anglo-Welsh father and French mother, and in his teens attended the

Royal Grammar School, Guildford The Royal Grammar School, Guildford (originally 'The Free School'), also known as the RGS, is a selective independent day school for boys in Guildford, Surrey in England. The school dates its founding to the death of Robert Beckingham in 1509 who ...

. After a few months in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

to add German to the French that had been his first language at home, he went to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. In 1935 he went to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, supported by a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship (now Harkness Fellowship) where he worked with

Wolfgang Pauli Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (; ; 25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958) was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics ...

and

John von Neumann John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...

, obtaining his Ph.D. with a thesis on ''The wave mechanics of the photon'' under the supervision of Max Born and Ralph Fowler. In 1937 he returned to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as a Fellow of Trinity, until in 1939 he was appointed Reader in Theoretical Physics at

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

under

James Chadwick Sir James Chadwick, (20 October 1891 – 24 July 1974) was an English physicist who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron in 1932. In 1941, he wrote the final draft of the MAUD Report, which inspi ...

. In 1941 he joined the Admiralty Signals Establishment (now part of the Admiralty Research Establishment) to work on radar. In 1944 he joined the British atomic energy team in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

designing nuclear reactors, but in 1945 returned to England, first to Cambridge and then in 1946 to

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he was appointed Wykeham Professor of Physics. Among his doctoral students were Anatole Abragam and

John Clive Ward John Clive Ward, (1 August 1924 – 6 May 2000) was a British-Australian physicist. He introduced the Ward–Takahashi identity, also known as "Ward Identity" (or "Ward's Identities"). Andrei Sakharov said Ward was one of the titans of q ...

. In 1947, in collaboration with John Ward, he co-authored a paper that originated on the probability amplitude of two entangled quanta propagating in opposite directions. In 1950 Klaus Fuchs was head of the theoretical physics group at AERE, Harwell. When Fuchs was arrested for supplying atomic secrets to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, Pryce served part-time as his replacement. In 1954 he moved to the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

as Head of the Physics Department. In 1964 he returned to North America, first to the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

and then in 1968 to the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

. From 1968 to 1978 he served on the Technical Advisory Committee (for nuclear waste management) of

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed this ...

Distinctions

* 1935 Fellow, Cambridge Philosophical Society * 1936 Member, American Physical Society * 1938 Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society * 1946 Fellow, Physical Society (London); Member of Council 1959–61 * 1951 Fellow of the Royal Society * 1957 Member of Radar and Signals Advisory Board, Ministry of Supply * 1958 Member of Electronics Research Council, Ministry of Aviation * 1959 Member (later Chairman) Advisory Council, Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham * 1960 Honorary Member of Council, Société de Physique, Paris

Personal life

In 1939 Pryce married Born's daughter Susanne Mararete.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pryce, Maurice 1913 births 2003 deaths English physicists Quantum physicists People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Princeton University alumni Fellows of New College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society Academics of the University of Bristol Alumni of the University of Bristol Wykeham Professors of Physics