George Paget Thomson
(1892-1975). Like his father, G.P. Thomson
attended Trinity College, Cambridge University, and did some
postgraduate work at the Cavendish. He held positions at
Cambridge, Aberdeen University, and Imperial College, London.
G.P. Thomson performed experiments on electron scattering
through celluloids that revealed diffraction effects
characteristic of wave phenomena. For this work he shared (with
C.J. Davisson) the 1937 Nobel prize in physics. It has been
quipped that J.J. Thomson got the Nobel prize for discovering
that electrons are particles, and G.P. Thomson got it for
discovering that they aren't.
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, E. Scott Barr Collection |