Alan Douglas Martin FRS (born 4 December 1937) is a British physicist, currently Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Durham.Staff profile
Durham University, retrieved 2016-02-28

Education

Martin was educated at the Eltham College. He received his BSc (1958) and PhD (1962) degrees from the University College London.

Work

Martin is known for his research in the theory of elementary particles, which includes studies of

mesic atom An exotic atom is an otherwise normal atom in which one or more sub-atomic particles have been replaced by other particles of the same charge. For example, electrons may be replaced by other negatively charged particles such as muons (muonic atom ...

s, kaon physics, pi–pi scattering,

hadron spectroscopy Hadron spectroscopy is the subfield of particle physics that studies the masses and decays of hadrons. Hadron spectroscopy is also an important part of the new nuclear physics. The properties of hadrons are a consequence of a theory called quantum c ...

and the anomalous magnetic moment of the

muon A muon ( ; from the Greek letter mu (μ) used to represent it) is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 '' e'' and a spin of , but with a much greater mass. It is classified as a lepton. As wi ...

. His work on the W boson and top quark was used in early collider experiments. His ongoing projects include the determination of the parton distributions of the proton and studies in small x and

diffractive physics Diffraction is defined as the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a s ...

, which are relevant to the experiments at the

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundred ...

. He is an author of well-known textbooks on particle physics. ''Quarks and Leptons'', co-authored with Francis Halzen, is a standard text around the world. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where: "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."

Awards and honours

Martin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2004. He was awarded the 2007 Max Born Medal and Prize ''for his pioneering research in the understanding of the strong interaction, in particular his theoretical work on the internal structure of the proton.''Leading Durham physicist wins prestigious international award
Durham University

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Alan Douglas Academics of Durham University Fellows of the Royal Society Living people 21st-century British physicists 1937 births Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at Eltham College Alumni of University College London