31 Facts About Lawrence Bragg

Lawrence Bragg was joint recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915, "For their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays"; an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography.

In 1900, Lawrence Bragg was a student at Queen's School, North Adelaide, followed by five years at St Peter's College, Adelaide.

Lawrence Bragg went to the University of Adelaide at the age of 16 to study mathematics, chemistry and physics, graduating in 1908.

Lawrence Bragg entered Trinity College, Cambridge in the autumn of 1909 and received a major scholarship in mathematics, despite taking the exam while in bed with pneumonia.

Lawrence Bragg's father built an apparatus in which a crystal could be rotated to precise angles while measuring the energy of reflections.

Lawrence Bragg was commissioned early in World War I in the Royal Horse Artillery as a second lieutenant of the Leicestershire battery.

Lawrence Bragg was 25 years old and remains the youngest science laureate.

Lawrence Bragg was Mentioned in Despatches on 16 June 1916,4 January 1917 and 7 July 1919.

Lawrence Bragg became the director of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington in 1937.

Lawrence Bragg believed that "the ideal research unit is one of six to twelve scientists and a few assistants".

In 1919 when Ernest Rutherford, a long-time family friend, moved to Cambridge, Lawrence Bragg replaced him as Langworthy Professor of Physics at the Victoria University of Manchester.

Lawrence Bragg recruited an excellent faculty, including former sound rangers, but he believed that his knowledge of physics was weak and he had no classroom experience.

Lawrence Bragg was deeply shaken but with family support he pulled himself together and prevailed.

Lawrence Bragg's family rallied around and he recovered his balance while they spent 1931 in Munich, where he did research.

Lawrence Bragg became director of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington in 1937, bringing some co-workers along.

The Laboratory had an eminent history in atomic physics and some members were wary of a crystallographer, which Lawrence Bragg surmounted by even-handed administration.

Lawrence Bragg worked on improving the interpretation of diffraction patterns.

Lawrence Bragg showed Bragg X-ray diffraction data from haemoglobin, which suggested that the structure of giant biological molecules might be deciphered.

Lawrence Bragg appointed Perutz as his research assistant and within a few months obtained additional support with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Lawrence Bragg worked on the structure of metals and consulted on sonar and sound ranging, for which the Tucker microphone was still used.

Lawrence Bragg organised periodic conferences on X-ray analysis, which was widely used in military research.

Lawrence Bragg worked with them and by 1960 they had resolved the structure of myoglobin to the atomic level.

Lawrence Bragg announced the discovery at a Solvay conference on proteins in Belgium on 8 April 1953, though it went unreported by the press.

Lawrence Bragg nominated Crick, Watson and Maurice Wilkins for the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; Wilkins' share recognised the contribution of X-ray crystallographers at King's College London.

In 1934 and 1961 Lawrence Bragg had delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture and since 1938 he had been Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Institution, delivering an annual lecture.

Lawrence Bragg bolstered finances by enlisting corporate sponsors, the traditional Friday Evening Discourses were followed by a dinner party for the speaker and carefully selected possible patrons, more than 120 of them each year.

Lawrence Bragg continued research in the Institution by recruiting a small group to work in the Davy-Faraday Laboratory in the basement and in the adjoining house, supported by grants he obtained.

Alice was on the staff at Withington Girls' School until Lawrence Bragg was appointed director of the National Physical Laboratory in 1937.

Lawrence Bragg died at a hospital near his home at Waldringfield, Ipswich, Suffolk.

Lawrence Bragg was buried in Trinity College, Cambridge; his son David is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, where Bragg's friend, who had he survived would have been his brother-in-law, Rudolph Cecil Hopkinson is buried.

Lawrence Bragg was knighted by King George VI in the 1941 New Year Honours, and received both the Copley Medal and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society.