Richardson, Owen Willans (1879-1959)

British physicist. He studied the emission of electricity from hot bodies, giving the name thermionics to the subject. At Cambridge University, he worked under J J Thomson in the Cavendish Laboratory. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1928 for his work on thermionic phenomena and associated law. He was knighted in 1939.

Richardson was appointed professor of physics at King's College, London in 1914 and was Yarrow research professor of the Royal Society 1924-44.