Career Harrie Massey

queen s university, belfast

in 1929, benefit of aitchison travelling scholarship university of melbourne, massey went trinity college, cambridge perform research @ cavendish laboratory led ernest rutherford. scholarship expired after 2 years, awarded 1851 exhibition scholarship in 1931. @ time cavendish laboratory 1 of leading centres of physics in world. in 1932 cavendish laboratory scientists john cockcroft , ernest walton split atomic nucleus, james chadwick discovered neutron, , patrick blackett , giuseppe occhialini confirmed existence of positron.

fowler appointed massey s supervisor although clear did not need supervision per se. massey obtained phd on collisions of material particles in 1932. shortly afterwards, co-authored book on atomic collision processes nevill mott, theory of atomic collisions (1933). applied theory of collisions models of neutron structure. @ cavendish laboratory, played hockey cockcroft, , cricket cavendish cricket club, becoming team captain in final year there.

in june 1933 massey became independent lecturer in mathematical physics @ queen s university of belfast. member of department until r. a. buckingham arrived in 1934. despite having give 9 lectures week, found time write second book, negative ions (1938), , began working on upper atmospheric physics. frustrated tiresome , time-consuming process of calculation, had physics workshop superintendent, john wylie, build him small-scale differential analyzer, analog computer solve differential equations, £50. used solve problems related low temperature helium, , photo-ionisation of oxygen in upper atmosphere.

massey appointed goldsmid professor of applied mathematics @ university college london, in 1938, following death of l. n. g. filon previous year. brought him buckingham, 1851 exhibition scholar himself, , david bates, promising graduate student. brought differential analyser them london, destroyed air raid during second world war.