When was Ernest Lawrence born?

Ernest Lawrence was born on 8 August 1901 in Canton.

Where did Ernest Lawrence study?

Ernest Lawrence was educated at Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, University of South Dakota.

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Ernest Lawrence

American nuclear physicist (1901–1958)

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Ernest Orlando Lawrence (August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. He is known for his work on uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project, as well as for founding the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Quick facts

Born: 8 August 1901 wd
Place of birth: Canton wd
Died: 27 August 1958 wd
Place of death: Palo Alto wd
Citizenship: United States wd
Occupation: physicist, nuclear physicist, university teacher wd
Education: Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, University of South Dakota, St. Olaf College, Augustana Academy wd
Spouse: Mary K. Blumer wd

Awards wd

Nobel Prize in Physics (1939)
Elliott Cresson Medal (1937)
William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement (1951)
Faraday Medal (1952)
Hughes Medal (1937)
Enrico Fermi Award (1957)
National Inventors Hall of Fame (1982)
Holley Medal (1942)
Fellow of the American Physical Society
Comstock Prize in Physics (1938)
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Silliman Memorial Lectures (1945)
Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize (1940)
Sylvanus Thayer Award (1958)

About

A graduate of the University of South Dakota and University of Minnesota, Lawrence obtained a PhD in physics at Yale in 1925. In 1928, he was hired as an associate professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, becoming the youngest full professor there two years later. In its library one evening, Lawrence was intrigued by a diagram of an accelerator that produced high-energy particles. He contemplated how it could be made compact, and came up with an idea for a circular accelerating chamber between the poles of an electromagnet. The result was the first cyclotron.

Lawrence went on to build a series of ever larger and more expensive cyclotrons. His Radiation Laboratory became an official department of the University of California in 1936, with Lawrence as its director. In addition to the use of the cyclotron for physics, Lawrence also supported its use in research into medical uses of radioisotopes. During World War II, Lawrence developed electromagnetic isotope separation at the Radiation Laboratory. It used devices known as calutrons, a hybrid of the standard laboratory mass spectrometer and cyclotron. A huge electromagnetic separation plant was built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which came to be called Y-12. The process was inefficient, but it worked.

After the war, Lawrence campaigned extensively for government sponsorship of large scientific programs, and was a forceful advocate of "Big Science", with its requirements for big machines and big money. Lawrence strongly backed Edward…

Questions

When was Ernest Lawrence born?: Ernest Lawrence was born on 8 August 1901 in Canton.
Where did Ernest Lawrence study?: Ernest Lawrence was educated at Yale University, University of Chicago, University of Minnesota, University of South Dakota.

Sources

Last updated 1 November 2026 · facts checked 5 November 2026

Cite this page

"Ernest Lawrence". DigiNepal. Last updated 1 November 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/ernest-lawrence. Retrieved 5 November 2026.

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Text from the Wikipedia article Ernest Lawrence, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Ernest Lawrence.jpg — Nobel foundation, Public domain.

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