Nobel Prize-winning South Dakotan physicist

From Black Hills Pioneer:  Nobel Prize-winning South Dakotan physicist 


There are things that command a certain respect. Winning the Heisman Trophy; being sworn in as Commander-in-Chief; selling more than a million copies of an album — the list goes on, and I'd say most people would have “Nobel Prize” among the items. Ernest Orland Lawrence, born and raised in South Dakota, is one person who lays claim to this prize, in the category of physics.
Ernest was born Aug. 8, 1901, in Canton, the grandson of Norwegian immigrants. His father, Gustavus, was the superintendent of schools, and he would attend school in Canton through high school, later attending St. Olaf College and then the University of South Dakota, where in 1922 he got his degree in chemistry. He added a master's degree in the field in 1923 from the University of Minnesota, and then added a Ph.D. in physics from Yale in 1925, having spent some time at the University of Chicago in between. He would spend the next two years as a National Research Fellow there before being appointed as an assistant professor for one year, before moving to the University of California-Berkeley in 1928 as an associate professor. After just two years, he was appointed the youngest professor of that university, adding the title of Director of the University Radiation Laboratory to his nametag in 1936. He would stay at these occupations the remainder of his life.

In 1932, he married Mary Kimberly Blumer, and the couple would have six children.
Ernest was always interested in nuclear physics, and he had earned the nickname “Atom Smasher” because of this focus. In 1929, he became the inventor of the cyclotron, a creation that could accelerate particles without using high voltages, and these nuclear particles can then disintegrate and perhaps re-form atoms into a different element. (Come now, it isn't rocket science; it's nuclear physics!) He initially got the idea from a diagram of such a proposed device, but this drawing showed a straight line of acceleration, and as Ernest started doodling his own solution on a sheet of paper, he realized a circular shape would create the necessary conditions for high-energy particles, and though others had investigated other theories for how to create such a phenomena, Ernest gets the credit for being the first to actually do so.
His first version of the cyclotron was very simple, composed of brass, wax and wire, and was also very small: about 4 inches in diameter. From this small original would evolve larger and larger versions, creating the foundation for high-energy physics experiments. In 1934, Ernest patented the invention, and it allowed for the discovery of new radioactive isotopes of known elements, which he and his brother, John, who was the director of the University's Medical Physics Laboratory, used to research the impact on biological and medical applications. Because of the cyclotron's impact in this field and his work, the Institute of Cancer Research at Columbia listed Ernest as one of their consultants.
The cyclotron allowed Ernest to create the Radiation Laboratory (also known as the Rad Lab), which would greatly aid in the study of nuclear physics. It also earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939, and because of World War II, the ceremony was held on the university campus in Berkeley. The war impacted Ernest's work, as his laboratory played a role in the search for nuclear weaponry, and he was one of the major players in the Manhattan Project, focusing on isotope separation.
Ernest was a believer that the government should support, and provide funding, for scientific research. Though he was one of the pioneers of nuclear research that led to the invention of the atom bomb, time and the appearance of nuclear weaponry elsewhere prompted new reactions from scientists, and by request of President Eisenhower, Ernest was part of the U.S. delegation's attempt to obtain a global agreement to suspend the testing of nuclear bombs, as a part of the 1958 Geneva Conference. Unfortunately, he was suffering a rather severe bout of colitis, an inflammation of the colon, which had been a chronic condition for him, but he recognized the importance of the request and left for Switzerland. His condition worsened, and though he was taken immediately to Stanford University's hospital, he died very soon afterwards in Palo Alto, Calif., on Aug. 27, 1958, only 57 years old.
The list of awards and honors that belong to this man is extensive, in addition to the 14 honorary doctorates he held. He was awarded the Medal for Merit; the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute; the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society; the Enrico Fermi Award from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; the Comstock Prize of the National Academy of Sciences; the Duddell Medal of the Royal Physical Society; the Faraday Medal; the Sylvanus Thayer Award from the United States Military Academy; and he was an Officer of the Legion of Honor; and he was a fellow or member of many scientific and academic societies the world over.
The University of California renamed two of its research facilities after Ernest, less than a month after his passing. The Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories bear his name, as well as the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, established in 1959. He even has an element on the periodic table honoring his impact on the field: “lawrencium” is chemical element number 103, and it was discovered in 1961 in one of the labs named in his honor.
We may be a state with a small population, but that doesn't mean we don't have extraordinary folk here. Ernest Lawrence is one of the many names on the list that have changed the world, and this is only a smattering of the highlights of his story.