Charles Glover Barkla

Charles Glover Barkla was a scientist who made significant breakthroughs in our understanding of X-ray. He developed and advanced the laws of X-ray scattering, X-ray spectroscopy, the principles of how X-rays transmit through matter, and the principles of secondary X-rays.

He was born in Widnes, then in Lancashire, and educated at the Liverpool Institute. He graduated with first class honours in Physics from University College, Liverpool in 1898, achieving his masters the following year. His career then led him to the Cavendish Laboratory at Trinity College, Cambridge, thanks to a research scholarship from the Royal Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851.

Thereafter followed academic positions at King’s College, London and his alma mater where he was a demonstrator, assistant lecturer in physics and special lecturer in advanced electricity. In 1909 he took up the post of Wheatstone Professor of Physics at University College, London, and then four years later he accepted the Chair in Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, a position he held until his death. He not only won the 1917 Nobel Prize for Physics but also the Hughes Medal in the same year.

Outside of work Barkla was a well-regarded singer and several biographies refer to his powerful baritone voice. He also enjoyed golf in his later years. The lecture theatre at the University of Liverpool’s Physics department, and a Biophysics laboratory in the Biological science department are both named after him.