Samuel Devons FRS (30 September 1914 – 6 December 2006) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British 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 ca ...

and science historian.

Biography

Devons, son of a Lithuanian immigrant, David Isaac Devons 1881-1926 and Edith Edelston from York 1891-1938 Sam was born in Bangor,

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. When he turned 16, he was awarded a scholarship for physics at

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, Devons received his bachelor's degree at Trinity College, and his PhD in 1939.

Personal life

Devons married Ruth Toubkin in 1938 in England, United Kingdom, and moved to the United States in 1960, to work at the Columbia University Physics Department. He had four daughters (Susan, Judith, Amanda and Cathryn), and had 12 grandchildren (Laura, Marc, Benjamin, Daniel, Jesse, David, Jonathan, Anna, Jacob, Rachel, Jessica and Matthew), and 9 great-grandchildren at the time of his death (Joel, Julia, Emily, Nathan, Elisheva, Isabella, Stella, Noah and Sophia, and later Hannah, Kathryn, Constantino, Gabriel, Sebastian and Lucas). In

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Devons served as a senior scientific officer in the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of State ...

Ministry of Aircraft Production Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian m ...

and

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for air ...

, working on antiaircraft barrages, microwaves, and radar. During the war, he became a liaison officer for the US and UK, posted at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

radiation laboratory. At the end of the war, he served as a British intelligence officer in Germany, assisting in the interrogation of surrendered scientists. In 2005, he was honored for 50 years as a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

Institutional history

* Lecturer in Physics,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, 1946–49, * Professor of Physics,

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a ...

, 1950–55 * Langworthy Professor of Physics and Director of Physical Laboratories,

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

, 1955–60. * Professor of Physics at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

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, 1960–85, Department Chair, 1963–67 and

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

until he died of

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, ...

in 2006.

Works

* The Excited States of Nuclei (1949) * Biology and Physical Sciences (1969) (ed.) * High Energy Physics and Nuclear Structure (1970) (ed.)

References

External links

Finding aid to the Samuel Devons Papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library
*http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/12/devon061212.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20070211003923/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2121638.ece Obituary 1914 births 2006 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society British physicists Jewish scientists Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of Imperial College London Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester People from Bangor, Gwynedd Welsh Jews Welsh people of Lithuanian descent Fellows of the American Physical Society {{UK-physicist-stub