On July 15, 1918, in Lethbridge, Ontario, Bretram N. Brockhouse was born. A few years later, in the 1920's, Bert's family moved to Vancouver owning and opperating a rooming house in the West End of Vancouver.
Ever since Bert was a youth he was a modest, honest, absent minded, kind, opionated and responsible person. When his family moved in the 1920's, he took on a paper route to contribute to his family's income. He liked fishing and hanging out with his buddies. He also enjoyed fooling around with radios a lot. He spent time hanging out in radio repair shops and making home-made radios from designs from popular electronics magazines, which gave him the idea for his first job when out of high school as a radio repair in 1935. These skills of repairing radios came in handy when World War II came along for he was an electronic technician in the Canadian Naval Reserve.
In 1950, Bert attended The University of Toronto studying Physics. In 1951, he recieved his PhD in Physics. Fresh out of University with his PhD, Bert moved to Chalk River, Ontario and worked at the Canadian Atomic Energy Project for the National Research Council as a researcher perfecting neutron spectroscopes and their applications. One night at his boss's, Donald Hurst, house, both were reading a 1944 term paper about neutrons. He found many new interesting theories in the term paper and decided to some experiments at the labratory at Chalk River to try out these new theories. Bert then picked up a and began to construct some math equations for these new theories. A while later, Bert went to Hurst and shown him the mathematical equations that he came up with on a blackboard. The equations described a device that would use a neutron beam as a kind of flashlight taht could look into the mysteries of crystalline structures and other solids such as metals, minerals, gems and rocks. Brockhouse went on to solve the problems of controling the source of neutron beam; limiting it to neutrons for only one energy; eliminating background radiation from other experiments; and problems with the sensitivity of the detectors. This in time resulted in the Tripple - Axis Neutron Spectrometer, in 1952, which is now used worldwide to investigate crystal structures.
Like many physicists, Bert Brockhouse liked to explore metaphysical ideas oor the spiritual world. He was a religious man whio's beliefs in physics theory reflected with his belief in religion. He quotes "Science is an act of faith. Without faith, how can understanding the existance of a neutron help with the larger moral issues of life." Brockhouse's example of a moral problem is "Kantian Doom"-- this is the idea that we are doomed because even though we know that something is bad for us, we do it anyway because everybody is doing it, for example driving cars, using computers or watching TV.
Over Brockhouse's long life time, he has achieved many outstanding awards, especially the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1994 for developing the Tripple - Axis Neutron Spectrometer. In attending university, he recieved his degrees B.Sc. (Physics & Math) in 1947 at the University of British Columbia(UBC) and in 1950 he got his PhD on physics at the University of Toronto. He recieved other awards including:
>Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada
>Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society
>Duddell Medal and Prize of the British Institute of Physics and Physical Society
>Centennial Medal of Canada
>Fellow of Royal Sociey of Canada
>Officer of the Order of Canada
>Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Acamedy
>1994 Nobel Prize in Physics
In 1962, Bert Brockhouse moved to McMaster University where he served as a professor of Physics and in 1967 to 1970 he became the Chairman of the department until his retirement in 1984. Bert has influenced many people and students including a few of his own graduate students, S.H. Chen, J.M. Rowe, and E.C. Svensson. His graduate students went on to develop new spectromerers at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor and later at the Chalk River NRC Reactor. Today, Brockhouse spends his time at his home in Ancestor, Ontario with his wife Dorris where he studies the philosophy of science for a past time, and spending time visiting with friends and family members.
Ever since Bert was a youth he was a modest, honest, absent minded, kind, opionated and responsible person. When his family moved in the 1920's, he took on a paper route to contribute to his family's income. He liked fishing and hanging out with his buddies. He also enjoyed fooling around with radios a lot. He spent time hanging out in radio repair shops and making home-made radios from designs from popular electronics magazines, which gave him the idea for his first job when out of high school as a radio repair in 1935. These skills of repairing radios came in handy when World War II came along for he was an electronic technician in the Canadian Naval Reserve.
In 1950, Bert attended The University of Toronto studying Physics. In 1951, he recieved his PhD in Physics. Fresh out of University with his PhD, Bert moved to Chalk River, Ontario and worked at the Canadian Atomic Energy Project for the National Research Council as a researcher perfecting neutron spectroscopes and their applications. One night at his boss's, Donald Hurst, house, both were reading a 1944 term paper about neutrons. He found many new interesting theories in the term paper and decided to some experiments at the labratory at Chalk River to try out these new theories. Bert then picked up a and began to construct some math equations for these new theories. A while later, Bert went to Hurst and shown him the mathematical equations that he came up with on a blackboard. The equations described a device that would use a neutron beam as a kind of flashlight taht could look into the mysteries of crystalline structures and other solids such as metals, minerals, gems and rocks. Brockhouse went on to solve the problems of controling the source of neutron beam; limiting it to neutrons for only one energy; eliminating background radiation from other experiments; and problems with the sensitivity of the detectors. This in time resulted in the Tripple - Axis Neutron Spectrometer, in 1952, which is now used worldwide to investigate crystal structures.
Like many physicists, Bert Brockhouse liked to explore metaphysical ideas oor the spiritual world. He was a religious man whio's beliefs in physics theory reflected with his belief in religion. He quotes "Science is an act of faith. Without faith, how can understanding the existance of a neutron help with the larger moral issues of life." Brockhouse's example of a moral problem is "Kantian Doom"-- this is the idea that we are doomed because even though we know that something is bad for us, we do it anyway because everybody is doing it, for example driving cars, using computers or watching TV.
Over Brockhouse's long life time, he has achieved many outstanding awards, especially the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1994 for developing the Tripple - Axis Neutron Spectrometer. In attending university, he recieved his degrees B.Sc. (Physics & Math) in 1947 at the University of British Columbia(UBC) and in 1950 he got his PhD on physics at the University of Toronto. He recieved other awards including:
>Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada
>Buckley Prize of the American Physical Society
>Duddell Medal and Prize of the British Institute of Physics and Physical Society
>Centennial Medal of Canada
>Fellow of Royal Sociey of Canada
>Officer of the Order of Canada
>Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Acamedy
>1994 Nobel Prize in Physics
In 1962, Bert Brockhouse moved to McMaster University where he served as a professor of Physics and in 1967 to 1970 he became the Chairman of the department until his retirement in 1984. Bert has influenced many people and students including a few of his own graduate students, S.H. Chen, J.M. Rowe, and E.C. Svensson. His graduate students went on to develop new spectromerers at the McMaster Nuclear Reactor and later at the Chalk River NRC Reactor. Today, Brockhouse spends his time at his home in Ancestor, Ontario with his wife Dorris where he studies the philosophy of science for a past time, and spending time visiting with friends and family members.
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