Physics: 1928

Richardson, Sir Owen Willans (1879-1959), won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1928 for his studies of thermionic emission. Many metals give off electrons when red-hot. The electrons constitute a current called a thermionic current. The equation that gives the thermionic current in terms of temperature for a given metal is now called Richardson's law.

Richardson was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Cambridge. In 1900, he began his research into thermionic emission. From 1906 to 1913, he was professor of physics at Princeton University, at Princeton, New Jersey in the United States. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1913, and returned to the United Kingdom the following year, becoming professor at King's College, in London.