Bernard Lovell
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Sir Bernard Lovell OBE, FRS |
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| Born | Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell 31 August 1913 Oldland Common, Bristol |
| Died | 6 August 2012 (aged 98) Cheshire |
| Fields | astronomy, physics |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | University of Bristol |
| Thesis | The electrical conductivity of thin metallic films (1936) |
| Known for | |
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Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell, OBE, FRS (31 August 1913 – 6 August 2012) was an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.
Lovell was born at Oldland Common, Bristol in 1913, the son of Gilbert and Emily Laura Lovell. His childhood hobbies and interests included cricket and music – mainly the piano. He had a Methodist upbringing and attended Kingswood Grammar School.
Lovell studied physics at the University of Bristol obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in 1934, and a PhD in 1936 on the electrical conductivity of thin films. At this time he also received lessons from Raymond Jones, a teacher at Bath Technical School and later organist at Bath Abbey. The church organ was one of the main loves of his life, apart from science. He worked in the cosmic ray research team at the University of Manchester until the outbreak of the Second World War, during which he worked for the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) developing radar systems to be installed in aircraft, among them H2S. In June 1942 he was involved in the recovery of a highly secret cavity magnetron from the wreckage of a Handley Page Halifax that had crashed killing a number of his colleagues, including EMI engineer Alan Blumlein, while on a test flight. For his work on H2S Lovell received an OBE in 1946.
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