Owen Willans Richardson (26.04.1879—15.02.1959) was an English physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1913). He was born in Dewsbury. He graduated from the University of Cambridge (1900), where he worked; in 1906—13 he was professor at Princeton University, in 1913 —24 at the University of London and in 1924—44 at the University of Cambridge.
His work was in electronics, electron and quantum theories, magnetism, the physics of X-rays, the study of the photoelectric and gyromagnetic effects, and the spectrum of molecular hydrogen. He began the wide-ranging research on thermionic emission. In 1901 he established the dependence of the saturation current density of thermionic emission on the temperature of the cathode surface (Richardson's law) (Nobel Prize, 1928). He verified experimentally the law of the Maxwell distribution of molecular velocities (1908) and Einstein's equation for the photoelectric effect (1912). In 1906 he expressed the idea of an extraterrestrial origin of penetrating radiation (cosmic rays).
He founded a school of physicists (A. Compton, C. Davisson, I. Langmuir, T. Tanaka, F. Robertson, P. Davidson, S. Rao and others). In 1926—28 he was president of the Physical Society of London. The D. Hughes Medal (1920), the Royal Medal (1930) and others.