Mott, Nevill Francis (1905–1996)

English physicist who researched the electronic properties of metals, semiconductors, and noncrystalline materials. He shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his contributions to understanding the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems. He was knighted in 1962.

Mott was born in Leeds and studied at St John's College, Cambridge. He lectured at Cambridge 1930–33, and was at Bristol 1933–54, first as professor of theoretical physics and then as director of the Henry Herbert Wills Physical Laboratories. From 1954 to 1971, he was professor at Cambridge. In addition to his numerous scientific publications he wrote an autobiography A Life in Science (1986), and Can Scientists Believe? (1991), about the relationship between science and religion.

Mott initially studied dislocations and other defects in crystalline structure. He was the first to put forward a comprehensive theory of the process involved when a photographic film is exposed to light.

Mott and his colleagues discovered special electrical characteristics in glassy semiconductors and laid down fundamental laws of behaviour for their materials. As a result of this work, more efficient photovoltaic cells can now be produced, and the memory capacity of computers increased.