Mark Oliphant
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Sir Mark Oliphant AC KBE FRS FAA |
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Mark Oliphant (1939)
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| Born |
8 October 1901 Kent Town, Adelaide, Australia |
| Died | 14 July 2000 (aged 98) Canberra, Australia |
| Residence |
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| Nationality | Australian |
| Institutions | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | The Neutralization of Positive Ions at Metal Surfaces, and the Emission of Secondary Electrons (1929) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ernest Rutherford |
| Doctoral students | Ernest William Titterton |
| Known for |
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| Notable awards |
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| 27th Governor of South Australia | |
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In office 1 December 1971 – 30 November 1976 |
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| Monarch | Elizabeth II |
| Premier | Don Dunstan |
| Lieutenant Governor |
Sir Mellis Napier Sir Walter Crocker |
| Preceded by | Sir James Harrison |
| Succeeded by | Sir Douglas Nicholls |
Sir Marcus Laurence Elwin "Mark" Oliphant AC KBE FRS FAA (8 October 1901 – 14 July 2000) was an Australian physicist and humanitarian who played an important role in the first experimental demonstration of nuclear fusion and also the development of nuclear weapons.
Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Oliphant graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1922. He was awarded an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship in 1927 on the strength of the research he had done on mercury, and went to England, where he studied under Sir Ernest Rutherford at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. There, he used a particle accelerator to fire heavy hydrogen nuclei (deuterons) at various targets. He discovered the nuclei of helium-3 (helions) and tritium (tritons). He also discovered that when they reacted with each other, the particles that were released had far more energy than they started with. Energy had been liberated from inside the nucleus, and he realised that this was a result of nuclear fusion.
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