Boris Davison (7 October 1908 – 24 January 1961) was a Russian-born mathematical physicist.

Boris Davison
Born
Boris Borisovich Davison

(1908-10-07)7 October 1908
Died24 January 1961(1961-01-24) (aged 52)
Toronto, Canada
Alma mater
Spouse
Olga Hansen
(m. 1946)
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Biography

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Boris Borisovich Davison was born 7 October 1908 in Vasilsursk, Gorky Oblast, Russia.[1] He attended Leningrad State University, graduating in 1931.[2][1] He then worked at the State Hydrological Institute.

Davison's grandfather had been British, and in 1938 Davison was given a choice – either renounce his British nationality or leave the Soviet Union. He chose to emigrate to the United Kingdom.[2][1] He then briefly worked with Louis Rosenhead at the University of Liverpool but withdrew from work due to illness.[1][2]

In 1942 he joined the University of Birmingham's atomic energy research team working under Rudolf Peierls, and in 1944 the university awarded him a PhD.[2][1]

In 1943 he moved to Canada to work under George Placzek at the Montreal Laboratory of the joint British-Canadian atomic energy project.[2][1][3] In October 1945 he briefly joined the British Mission at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, part of the Manhattan Project which had just developed the atom bomb.[4] In 1946 Davison married Olga Hansen.[5]

He worked at Chalk River Laboratory in Ontario before returning to the UK in 1947 to work at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire.[2][1]

In 1953 his security clearance was revoked by the British government because his parents still lived in the Soviet Union, potentially putting Davison at risk of blackmail.[6] He was given a year's leave of absence working at the University of Birmingham.[7][4] Davison then emigrated to Canada in 1954, where he took up a position at the computation centre at the University of Toronto.[3][4]

In 1957 he authored the book Neutron Transport Theory.[2]

Davison died suddenly at his home in Toronto on 24 January 1961 at the age of 52.[5][2][8]

Books

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  • Boris, Davison (1957). Neutron Transport Theory. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-851207-3.
  • Davison, B. (1979). Collected Papers of Boris Davison. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Hager, Willi (21 March 2014). Hydraulicians in Europe 1800-2000: Volume 2. CRC Press. p. 1375. ISBN 978-1-4665-5498-6.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Watson, W. H. (April 1961). "Prof. B. Davison". Nature. 190 (4773): 306–307. Bibcode:1961Natur.190..306W. doi:10.1038/190306b0. ISSN 0028-0836. S2CID 4275244.
  3. ^ a b "Boris Davison". Physics Today. 14 (5): 76. 1 May 1961. doi:10.1063/1.3057579. ISSN 0031-9228.
  4. ^ a b c Szasz, Ferenc Morton (1992). British Scientists and the Manhattan Project. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 134. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-12731-3. ISBN 978-1-349-12733-7.
  5. ^ a b "Boris Davison". The Gazette. 28 January 1961. p. 39 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Positively Vet". Time. 7 September 1953. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  7. ^ "British A-Scientist Given Year's Leave". The Washington Post. 26 August 1953. p. 1.
  8. ^ "Campus News Briefs". The Varsity. Toronto. 27 January 1961. p. 2.

Further reading

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