Sir William Lawrence Bragg

Sir William Lawrence Bragg was an Australian-born British physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Bragg shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in physics with his father, British physicist Sir William Henry Bragg, for their work in establishing X-ray crystallography, the study of crystal structures with X rays. Born in Adelaide, Australia, William Lawrence Bragg studied at Saint Peter's College in Adelaide and at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1908. He enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, in 1909 to …

…Bragg went on to determine the structure of increasingly complex compounds such as silicates, a family of crystalline minerals composed partly of silicon. In his position at the Royal Institution, Bragg built upon his early work by sponsoring and conducting crystallographic research. He also devoted his energy and talents to popularizing and teaching science and its history. Bragg was knighted in 1941. He retired in 1966, but maintained an active interest in both crystallography and scientific popularization.