Charles Glover Barkla Biography

Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements. Born at Widnes, Lancashire, he was a brilliant student from the start. He joined the University College, Liverpool, where he studied physics under Sir Oliver Lodge. It is possible that his interest in radiation was developed at this time. Subsequently, after earning his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree from Liverpool he joined Trinity College, Cambridge and there he started working under J.J. Thompson at the Cavendish Laboratory on velocity of electromagnetic waves. Later he went back to the University of Liverpool from where he earned his D.Sc. Subsequently, he worked for four years at the same institute first as demonstrator, then as Assistant Lecturer and finally as a full Professor. Afterwards, he spent around four more years at the King's College at the University of London and lastly joined the University of Edinburg as the Professor of Natural Philosophy, a position he held until his death. Over the years, he gained considerable reputation as an experimental physicist and earned the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on X-ray.