Nevill Francis Mott (born 30.09.1905) is an English theoretical physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1936). He was born in Leeds. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1927). In 1929-30 he worked at the University of Manchester, in 1930-33 at Cambridge, and in 1933-54 he was professor at the University of Bristol and director (1948 — 54) of its physics laboratory. In 1954 — 71 he was professor and director of the Cavendish Laboratory.
His research was in quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, the theory of atomic collisions, nuclear physics, and the physics of metals and semiconductors. In 1929 he was the first to draw attention to the possibility of polarisation of an electron beam in scattering, and calculated the effect of electron polarisation in the field of an unscreened atomic nucleus. He derived the formula for the differential scattering cross section of an atom (the Mott formula). In 1931 he was the first to verify the validity of the Born approximation. In 1932 he gave the theory of internal conversion. He introduced (1937) the concept of a bound state of an electron from the conduction band and a hole from the valence band (the Wannier — Mott exciton). Together with R. Gurney he considered the formation of the latent photographic image on the basis of atomic and molecular ideas and constructed (1938) the first theory of the photographic process (the Mott — Gurney model). He obtained the most general expression for the thermo-emf of metals. He constructed a theory of the transition metals and their alloys and a theory of rectification at a barrier (the Mott — Schottky theory), and extended Taylor's theory of dislocations. He carried out (1934 — 36) the first work on the physics of liquid metals. He made a significant contribution to the creation of the theory of disordered systems (Nobel Prize, 1977). He is one of the founders of semiconductor physics.
He is a member of a number of academies of sciences and scientific societies. In 1951 —57 he was president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.