Edward Appleton (6.09.1892-21.04.1965) was an English physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1927). He was born in Bradford. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1913). In 1920—24 he was assistant demonstrator at the Cavendish Laboratory, in 1924—36 professor at the University of London, in 1936 —39 at Cambridge, and in 1939—49 secretary of the Department of Scientific and Technical Research. From 1949 he was rector of the University of Edinburgh.
His main work was in radiophysics, chiefly the study of the propagation and attenuation of radio waves. He studied experimentally the reflection of radio waves in the atmosphere. In 1924 he discovered the ionosphere, and in 1926 he detected the upper reflecting layer E in the ionosphere (the so-called Appleton layer), postulated in 1902 by O. Heaviside. He studied the ionisation density of the various reflecting layers in the upper atmosphere and in 1927 developed the magnetoionic theory of the ionosphere. He contributed to the development of radar.
Nobel Prize (1947).