Tom Bonner (19.X 1910 - 6.12.1961) was an American experimental physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1959). He was born in Greenville (Texas). In 1934 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Rice University in Houston, where he worked from 1936 (professor from 1945 and from 1947 dean of the physics faculty). In 1941 — 46 he was deputy head of a division of the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His research was in the field of nuclear physics and especially of neutron physics. He studied nuclear transformations under the action of protons, neutrons, deuterons and alpha particles, the scattering of neutrons, excited nuclear states, the mechanism of nuclear reactions and nuclear resonances. He developed the technique of working with neutron counters for determining the threshold of emission of fission neutrons, and invented the spherical neutron spectrometer.
The American Physical Society has established a prize in the name of T. Bonner.