Ernest Orlando Lawrence (8.08.1901-27.08.1958) was an American physicist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1934). He was born in Canton. He graduated from the University of South Dakota (1922) and continued his studies at the universities of Minnesota, Chicago and Yale. From 1928 he worked at the University of California at Berkeley (from 1930 as professor) and from 1936 he was director of the Radiation Laboratory (now the E. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory).
His research was in the field of accelerator technology, nuclear physics and its applications in biology and medicine. In 1929 he put forward the idea of a magnetic resonance accelerator, the cyclotron, and in 1931 he built its first model (Nobel Prize, 1939). Later, under Lawrence's direction, a whole series of different cyclotrons was built in the USA. Using cyclotrons he studied the structure of the atom, carried out the transmutation of a number of elements and obtained a series of radioisotopes. In 1933 he obtained deuterons and studied reactions with them. He was the initiator of the use of accelerated particles in medicine. He performed the first experiment on the therapy of deep-seated malignant tumours with beams of fast neutrons. Later he made wide use of the isotopes obtained (radiophosphorus, radioiodine) for the treatment of tumours, of the thyroid gland and so on. He worked on the separation of uranium-235.
A member of a number of academies of sciences and scientific societies, and a foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1942).