Robin Marshall facts for kids

Robin Marshall (born in 1940) is a very respected professor of Physics and Biology. He works at the University of Manchester in England, where he is now an Emeritus professor. This means he has retired but is still highly regarded by the university. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), which is a big honor for scientists.

Early Life and Education

Robin Marshall went to Ermysted's Grammar School in a town called Skipton. After that, he studied at the University of Manchester. He earned his first degree, a Bachelor of Science, in 1962.

He continued his studies and received his PhD in 1965. For his PhD, he worked on developing special tools called sonic spark chambers. He also studied how tiny particles called pions interact with protons.

Amazing Discoveries in Physics

Professor Marshall is known for his important work in a field called high-energy electron–positron annihilation. This is where electrons and positrons (which are like anti-electrons) crash into each other at very high speeds. When they collide, they create new particles.

Uncovering Particle Secrets

He was the first scientist at a huge particle accelerator called PETRA (Positron–Electron Tandem Ring Accelerator) to figure out the "electroweak properties" of tiny particles. First, he studied leptons, and then he looked at quarks. These properties help us understand how these particles behave. His work became a guide for many other scientists for the next ten years.

Professor Marshall also carefully analyzed data from electron–positron collisions around the world. He used this information to find important numbers for Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). QCD is the theory that describes the strong force, which holds quarks together inside protons and neutrons.

Finding the Bottom Quark

In 1984, he came up with a clever way to find events involving "bottom quarks." These are a type of quark. He used his new method to measure the electroweak properties of the bottom quark. His research showed that the bottom quark belonged to a special group called a "weak isospin doublet state." This was a big clue! It meant that another particle, the top quark, had to exist. The discovery of the top quark was later confirmed, and it was one of the most important findings from the PETRA accelerator.

Professor Marshall also led a group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) from 1978 to 1992. In the 1990s, he led the British team working on an experiment at another large particle accelerator called HERA (Hadron-Elektron-Ringanlage) in Germany.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Professor Marshall has received several important awards for his scientific work.

• In 1995, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is one of the oldest and most respected scientific organizations in the world.
• He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) from 1996 to 2018.
• In 1997, the German Physical Society gave him the Max Born Medal and Prize. This award honors scientists for excellent work in physics.

Books and Publications

Beyond his research, Professor Marshall has also written several books.

• He wrote a detailed five-volume history called "Three Centuries of Manchester Physics." This series covers how physics developed in Manchester, looking at its scientific, cultural, social, and political sides.
• In 2018, he published a book with letters written by physicists during World War I. These letters, mostly sent to Nobel Prize winner William Lawrence Bragg, give us a new look into what scientists were doing and thinking during the war.
• In 2019, he wrote about the discovery of "transmutation" by Ernest Rutherford in Manchester in 1919. Transmutation is the process of changing one element into another.
• He has also written one fiction book called "The Nobel Conspiracy."