Mott, Sir Nevill Francis

▪ 1997

      British physicist (b. Sept. 30, 1905, Leeds, Eng.—d. Aug. 8, 1996, Milton Keynes, Eng.), shared the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physics with Philip Anderson and John Van Vleck for research into the electronic properties of noncrystalline, or amorphous, solids. This work showed that amorphous materials, which are easier and less expensive to manufacture than crystalline substances, could be used in such electronic tools as computers, pocket calculators, and transistor radios. Although originally interested in the theoretical aspects of quantum mechanics, Mott focused on the practical applications of this knowledge. His interest in science was inspired by his parents, who studied at Cavendish Laboratory with J.J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron. After receiving a master's degree in 1930 from the University of Cambridge, Mott became a fellow and lecturer at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, serving there later (1959-66) as master. In 1933 he moved to the University of Bristol as a professor of theoretical physics, and in 1948 he became director of the physics laboratories there. He then was appointed Cavendish professor of physics at Cambridge, a position he held from 1954 until he retired in 1971. During his tenures at Bristol and Cambridge, Mott staffed his laboratories with world-class scientists, who made significant contributions to solid state physics. Mott also published such influential books as The Theory of Atomic Collisions (1933; with H.S.W. Massey) and Electronic Processes in Ionic Crystals (1940; with R.W. Gurney). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1936 and knighted in 1962.

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