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Lawrence Bragg Facts & Worksheets

Lawrence Bragg was a British X-ray crystallographer and physicist who won the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics.

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Lawrence Bragg was a British X-ray crystallographer and physicist who won the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics. He is the youngest Nobel laureate in physics as of 2018.

See the fact file below for more information on the Lawrence Bragg or alternatively, you can download our 23-page Lawrence Bragg worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE

  • William Lawrence Bragg was born on 31 March 1890 in Adelaide, Australia.
  • His parents were Sir William Henry Bragg and Lady Gwendoline Bragg. His father was a physicist and a Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Adelaide.
  • He studied at the Queens Preparatory School in North Adelaide, showing interest in mathematics and science. At the age of 14, he graduated from high school at St. Peter’s College.
  • He later enrolled at the Adelaide University and took up courses in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He graduated in 1908.
  • Their family relocated to England when his father became the Cavendish chair of physics at the University of Leeds.
  • In 1909, he received a major scholarship in mathematics upon entering the Trinity College in Cambridge, England. But he shifted to physics one year after, at his father’s suggestion.
  • His academic excellence continued and in 1912, he was able to take first-class honors in Natural Science.
  • During the autumn of 1912, he started his investigation on the von Laue phenomenon. Bragg published his findings in November on his first paper the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

CAREER AND CONTRIBUTIONS

  • Starting from 1912 to 1914, he worked together with his father to research X-ray crystallography.
  • They discovered that unlike crystalline liquids, crystalline solids create a pattern of reflected X-rays.
  • They found out that X-ray radiations are reflected in intense peaks when these crystals are positioned at a certain angle and are bombarded with certain specific wavelengths.
  • The Trinity College appointed him in 1914 as a Fellow and Lecturer in Natural Sciences. He received the Barnard Medal in the same year.
  • In 1915, the father and son duo published a shortened form of their results in the X-rays and Crystal Structure.
  • Lawrence Bragg won the Nobel Prize in physics together with his father for their work on analyzing crystal structures using X-ray.
  • From 1915 to 1919, during World War I, Lawrence Bragg held a position in the British army headquarters in France.
  • Along with colleagues, Bragg developed a hot wire airwave detector that enabled the British army to locate enemy batteries through the sound of gun fires.
  • For his service and work during the war, he was awarded the British order of chivalry, O.B.E., and the Military Cross (M.C.) in 1918.
  • In 1919, after the war, he became the Langworthy Professor of Physics at the Victoria University of Manchester and remained in this position until 1937.
  • In 1931, the Royal Society gave him the Hughes Medal.
  • He then served at the National Physical Laboratory as the director from 1937 to 1938.
  • Bragg left this position and went to Cambridge University to be a Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics.
  • He was the Administrator of the Cavendish Laboratory from 1938 to 1953.
  • King George VI knighted Lawrence Bragg during the 1941 New Year Honours.
  • The Royal Society presented him the Royal Medal and the Copley Medal in 1946 and 1966, respectively.
  • In 1948, he received the Roebling Medal from the Mineral Society of America.
  • While in Cambridge, Bragg was drawn into research of the structure of proteins. His X-ray method helped the scientists involved in the discovery of the structure of the DNA, although he did not have any direct part in the discovery.
  • In April 1953, he got a job at the Royal Institution in London as a Resident Professor where he worked until he retired in September 1966.
  • He was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II as a Companion of Honour in the following year.

DEATH AND LEGACY

  • Sir Lawrence was able to celebrate his golden jubilee as a Nobel Laureate and was given special attention during the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm.
  • He was also given an invitation to deliver a lecture, the first Nobel Guest Lecture, on developments during the last fifty years in his field of interest.
  • On July 1, 1971, Lawrence Bragg died near his home in Waldringfield, Ipswich, Suffolk. His grave is in Trinity College Chapel at Cambridge University in England.
  • The Institute of Physics started awarding the Lawrence Bragg Medal and Prize in 1967 in honor of Lawrence Bragg.
  • In 1992, students in Australian universities with the best Ph.D. thesis started being awarded the Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics.
  • The award is given by the Australian Institute of Physics.
  • In 2013, Bragg on the Braggs was presented on BBC Radio 4 by Lawrence’s relative, Melvyn Bragg.

Lawrence Bragg Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Lawrence Bragg across 23 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Lawrence Bragg worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Lawrence Bragg who was a British X-ray crystallographer and physicist who won the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics. He is the youngest Nobel laureate in physics as of 2018.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Bragg-o-Data
  • True Crystal
  • UniLife
  • Interestingly Bragg
  • Words on Bragg
  • Personally Bragg
  • Defining Sentence
  • Scientific Bonding
  • Bragg’s Shell
  • Out of Habit

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