Edward Victor Appleton Biography

Sir Edward Victor Appleton was an English physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1947. He discovered a layer of the ionosphere, which is a dependable reflector of radio waves, during experiments he carried out in the mid-1920s. Born in England as the son of a warehouseman, Appleton grew up to be a brilliant student with interests in varied subjects and excelled in science and mathematics as well as in the study of literature and language. After completing his schooling he won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge. He graduated with first-class honors and immediately began postgraduate work in crystallography. However, the World War I began and interrupted his research work. After serving in the war as a commissioned officer he returned to his research work and started working on radio waves. Atmospheric physics was one field he was passionate about and he embarked on a series of experiments which proved the existence of a layer in the upper atmosphere which eventually became known as the ionosphere. The detection of the ionosphere and its layers played a great role in the development of radio research. The Radio and Space Research Station was renamed the Appleton Laboratory in his honour, in 1974.