See also: Powell

Cecil Frank Powell was a Physicien British, born the December 5th 1903 with Tonbridge, and dead the August 9th 1969 with Milan.

It accepted the Nobel Prize of physics in 1950 for its work on photographic methods for the study of the nuclear processes, like for its discovery of the Pion (meson π). The pawn corresponded to the hypothetical particle proposed by Hideki Yukawa in 1935 in its theory of nuclear physics.

In 1928, Powell became research assistant at the Laboratory Henry Herbert Wills of the university of Bristol. He became professor de Physique with Bristol-board in 1948 and director of Wills Laboratory in 1964.

Between 1939 and 1945, it developed the techniques necessary for the use of sensitive photographic emulsions to record the traces of the cosmic rays.

Placed on tops of mountains or in balloons of very high-altitude, these photographic plates made it possible to record the interactions of the cosmic rays and these data revealed in 1947 the existence of the Pion (π⁺) as well as the process by which it disintegrates in two other particles: a Antimuon and a Neutrino.

Powell also discovered the antipion (π^-) and, in 1949, the modes of disintegration of the Kaon S (kaons).

He was signatory of the Manifeste Russell-Einstein.

Its work was worth to him the Royal Medal in 1961.

March 17th 1949 -->