Donald Hill Perkins facts for kids

Donald Hill Perkins (born October 15, 1925 – died October 30, 2022) was a famous British scientist. He was a physicist and a professor at the University of Oxford. He made big discoveries in particle physics, which is the study of tiny particles that make up everything. He also wrote important science books.

Donald Perkins' Life and Career

Donald Perkins was born in 1925. He studied at Imperial College London and earned his science degrees there. After finishing his studies, he worked at Bristol University. He also spent time researching at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, USA.

Later, in 1963 and 1964, he did important research at CERN. CERN is a huge science lab in Europe where scientists study tiny particles. In 1965, he became a professor at the University of Oxford, teaching about elementary particle physics. He helped build a new department there for studying nuclear physics. He returned to CERN for more research in 1976 and 1983.

Donald Perkins retired in 1998. He passed away in 2022 at the age of 97.

What Did Donald Perkins Discover?

Perkins made many important discoveries in particle physics.

• He helped find the negative pion. This is a type of tiny particle found in cosmic radiation, which comes from space.
• At Berkeley, he studied K-mesons and how protons and antiprotons destroy each other when they meet.
• At CERN, he worked on experiments involving neutrinos. Neutrinos are super tiny particles that can pass through almost anything.
• He made key discoveries about the "weak neutral current" using an experiment called Gargamelle. This helped prove a big theory in physics.
• He also helped confirm a theory called quantum chromodynamics, which explains how tiny particles called quarks stick together.
• In 1982, he looked into whether proton decay was possible. He also found early signs of something called neutrino oscillations, which means neutrinos can change from one type to another.

Perkins also thought about how science could help people. In 1961, he suggested using beams of pions to treat cancer.

He wrote several important textbooks. His book Introduction to High Energy Physics is used by students all over the world to learn about particle physics. He also wrote Particle Astrophysics in 2003.

Awards and Honors

Donald Perkins received many awards for his amazing work.

• He was given special honorary doctorates from Bristol University and the University of Sheffield.
• In 1966, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
• He won the Guthrie Medal and Prize in 1979 and the Holweck Prize in 1992.
• In 1997, he received the Royal Medal from the Royal Society.
• In 2001, he won the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize from the European Physical Society.

He also gave many guest lectures at universities in different countries, sharing his knowledge with students and other scientists.