Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett (18.11.1897—13.07.1974) was an English physicist, a Fellow of the Royal Society (1933) and its president (1965—70). He was born in London. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1919). In 1923-33 he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory, in 1933-37 and 1953-65 he was professor at the University of London, and in 1937—53 at the University of Manchester.
His research concerned atomic and nuclear physics and the physics of cosmic rays. He improved the Wilson cloud chamber and in 1925 obtained in it photographs of the disintegration of nitrogen nuclei by alpha particles, recording the tracks of the proton. This was the first direct proof of the existence of the proton and of the artificial transmutation of the elements. He did much for the discovery and the study of positrons and mesons. In 1933, soon after C. Anderson's discovery of positrons (September 1932), he confirmed that discovery together with G. Occhialini by detecting positrons in cosmic rays (he observed showers of electrons and positrons), and he discovered the production of an electron and a positron from a gamma quantum. For the development of the counter-controlled Wilson cloud chamber, which made it possible to make a number of important discoveries in nuclear physics and in the physics of cosmic rays, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948.
He was the author of a number of works on public affairs and politics, did much for the development of science in England, and campaigned actively for peace and for the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. A member of many academies of sciences, scientific institutions and societies. A foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1966).
The Copley Medal (1956).