Alan Herries Wilson

Who was Alan Herries Wilson?

Sir Alan Herries Wilson, 2 July 1906 – 30 September 1995, was a British mathematician and industrialist. He was educated at Cambridge University, obtaining a B. S. degree in mathematics in 1926. His graduate work was under the supervision of R.H. Fowler working on problems in quantum mechanics.

He studied with Werner Heisenberg on the application of quantum mechanics to electrical conduction in metals and semiconductors. During the period 1931–1932 Wilson formulated a theory explaining how energy bands of electrons can make a material a conductor, a semiconductor or an insulator. In 1932 he was awarded the Adams Prize; the essay he wrote for this prize became the basis for his book The Theory of Metals published in 1936. His book Semi-conductors and Metals was published in 1939. Wilson supervised four graduate students in the study of solid-state physics during the 1930s, but Wilson perceived that interest in the field was small at Cambridge and so switched to the study of nuclear physics and cosmic rays.

Wilson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1942 for his work in advancing the theory of conduction in metals and semiconductors. During the Second World War he worked on radio communications problems for the SOE, and was later attached to the British Tube Alloys project to develop the atomic bomb.