Brief outline of career starting with his association in 1897 with Joseph J. Thomson. At University of Cambridge started work on electron charges in a cloud chamber; appointed to King's College (work on rotation of discharge in a radio magnetic field), 1904. McGill University, Montreal, 1909-1912. Accepted offer from Rice Institute in Houston (Edgar Odell Lovett) to organize the physics department, 1912; spent the rest of his professional career at Rice, except for a brief return to the University of Glasgow (Lord Kelvin's 100th anniversary). Developed nuclear physics program at Rice; he and Tom Bonner built the Institute's Van de Graaff Generator, mid-1930s. Brief remarks on graduate physics education.