Ernest C. Pollard
| Ernest Pollard | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 16, 1906 Yunnan, China |
| Died |
February 24, 1997 (aged 90) Jupiter, Florida, U.S. |
| Nationality | British |
| Institutions |
Duke University Pennsylvania State University Yale University University of Florida |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | James Chadwick |
| Doctoral students |
Thomas Patrick Coohill Carl Woese |
Ernest Charles "Ernie" Pollard (April 16, 1906 – February 24, 1997) was a professor of physics and biophysics and an author, who worked on the development of radar systems in World War II, worked on the physics of living cells, and who wrote textbooks and approximately 200 papers on nuclear physics and radiation biophysics.
The son of Sam Pollard, Ernest C. Pollard lived until age 10 in China, moving to the United Kingdom when his father died. He studied physics at Cambridge University. He did his PhD work under James Chadwick at Cavendish Laboratory, which was led by Ernest Rutherford, receiving his degree in 1932. In 1933, he joined the physics department of Yale University, where he designed the university's first cyclotron in 1939. He co-wrote the first "textbook" in the subject: Applied Nuclear Physics with William L. Davidson, Jr. then Research Physicist of the B.F. Goodrich Company, published in 1942.
From 1941 to 1945 he was a member of the MIT Radiation Laboratory, working on such projects as Li'l Abner (for which he was granted a patent), MEW, the moving target indicator, and the height finder; and serving as associate head, co-head, and head of Division 10. For his work on radar development, he received the President's Certificate of Merit from President of the United States Harry S. Truman.
In 1948 he led the formation of a group of biophysicists at Yale. A department of biophysics was formally organized there in 1954, with funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation, where he became a professor, serving as the departmental chairman until 1961. During this time, Pollard supervised numerous doctoral students including the future Crafoord Prize winner Carl Woese. (The department of biophysics subsequently merged with the department of biochemistry, in 1969, becoming the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry.)
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