imported>OpalYosutebito: /* top */ Fixed unknown params

2025-05-01T19:30:11Z

New page

{{short description|British physicist}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}

{{Infobox scientist
| name = Professor Samuel Devons
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1914|09|30}}
| birth_place = Bangor, Wales, United Kingdom
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2006|12|06|1914|09|30}}
| death_place = Westchester, New York, USA
| citizenship = United Kingdom
| nationality = British
| awards = [[Rutherford Medal and Prize]] {{small|(1970)}}
}}

'''Samuel Devons''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (30 September 1914 – 6 December 2006) was a [[Great Britain|British]] [[physicist]] and science historian.

==Biography==
Devons' parents were David Isaac Devons, a [[Lithuania]]n immigrant (1881–1926), and Edith Edelston from [[York]] (1891–1938). Economist [[Ely Devons]] was his brother. Samuel was born in [[Bangor, Gwynedd|Bangor]], [[Wales]].<ref name="indep">{{cite news|title=Professor Samual Devons; Physicist and historian of science|author=Frank Sciulli|date=3 January 2007|work=[[The Independent]]|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-samuel-devons-430589.html}}</ref><ref name="times">{{cite news|title=Professor Samuel Devons|date=9 February 2007|work=[[The Times]]|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1355831.ece | location=London }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref name="phystoday">{{cite news|title=Samuel Devons|work=Physics Today|date=4 January 2007|url=http://www.physicstoday.org/obits/notice_109.shtml|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612010242/http://www.physicstoday.org/obits/notice_109.shtml|archivedate=12 June 2011}}</ref> When he turned 16, he was awarded a scholarship for physics at [[Trinity College, Cambridge]]. In 1935, Devons received his bachelor's degree at Trinity, 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 [[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 3 great-grandchildren at the time of his death (Joel, Emily and Julia,) and later Elisheva, Nachman, Nathan, Noah, Stella, Isabella, Sophia, Gavriel, Constantino, Gabriel, Racheli, Cathryn, Hannah, Shana, Sebastian, Lucas, Benyamin, Jordan, Aryeh, Luke, Oscar, and Eliyahu, for a total of 25 great grandchildren as of 2023.

In [[World War II]], Devons served as a senior scientific officer in the [[Air Ministry]], [[Ministry of Aircraft Production]] and [[Ministry of Supply]], working on antiaircraft barrages, microwaves, and radar.<ref name="indep" /><ref name="times" /> During the war, he became a liaison officer for the US and UK, posted at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] radiation laboratory.<ref name="indep" /><ref name="times" /> At the end of the war, he served as a British intelligence officer in [[Germany]], assisting in the interrogation of surrendered scientists.<ref name="indep" /><ref name="phystoday" />

In 2005, he was honored for 50 years as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]].<ref name="times" />

==Institutional history==
* Lecturer in Physics, [[University of Cambridge]], 1946–49,
* Professor of Physics, [[Imperial College London]], 1950–55
* [[Langworthy Professor|Langworthy Professor of Physics]] and Director of Physical Laboratories, [[Victoria University of Manchester|University of Manchester]], 1955–60.
* Professor of Physics at [[Columbia University]], [[New York City|New York]], 1960–85, Department Chair, 1963–67 and [[Professor Emeritus]] until he died of [[congestive heart failure]] in 2006.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|title=Samuel Devons, Physicist and Historian, 92|date=18 December 2006|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E0DC1331F93BA25751C1A9609C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/D/Deaths%20(Obituaries)}}</ref>

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

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_10315268 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

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before= [[Patrick Blackett]] }}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Langworthy Professor]] at the [[University of Manchester]]| years=1955–60}}
{{s-aft|after= [[Brian Flowers]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devons, Samuel}}
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:2006 deaths]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:British physicists]]
[[Category:Jewish British scientists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Academics of Imperial College London]]
[[Category:Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester]]
[[Category:People from Bangor, Gwynedd]]
[[Category:Welsh Jews]]
[[Category:Welsh people of Lithuanian descent]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society]]

{{UK-physicist-stub}}

Samuel Devons - Revision history

imported>OpalYosutebito: /* top */ Fixed unknown params