Philip Burton Moon
Philip Burton Moon FRS (17 May 1907 – 9 October 1994) was a British nuclear physicist. He is most remembered for his research work in atomic physics and nuclear physics. He is one of the British scientists who participated in the United States' Manhattan Project, Britain's Tube Alloys, and was involved in nuclear weapon development. Moon made outstanding and original experimental contributions which stimulated the development of whole fields of research involving neutrons, gamma rays and novel methods of studying chemical reactions ('Mechanically propelled molecular beams: techniques and opportunities', Moon, P.B. Ralls, M.P., Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 423, 361 371, 1989).
Early life and education
Philip Burton Moon was born in 1907, attended Leyton Sixth Form College, and in 1925 entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He became a research student in the Cavendish Laboratory under Ernest Rutherford. From 1928 to 1931 he worked with Mark Oliphant on the collision of atoms with solids. Rutherford called him "Oliphant's satellite" and that influence remained with him for decades.
