Clifford Glenwood Shull
Shull, Clifford Glenwood (1915-2001) was an American physicist. He won the 1994 Nobel Prize in physics for developing the technique of using neutrons (uncharged subatomic particles) to probe the atomic structure of solids. This technique is called neutron scattering or neutron diffraction. Shull shared the prize with the Canadian physicist Bertram Neville Brockhouse, who independently did related research.
Shull was born on Sept. 23, 1915, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received a B.S. degree in physics from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University) in 1937 and a Ph.D. degree in physics from New York University in 1941.
From 1941 to 1946, Shull worked at the Texas Company (now Texaco) in Beacon, New York. There he studied the structure of catalysts (materials that promote chemical reactions) in the development of high-performance aviation fuel.
From 1946 to 1955, Shull worked at the Clinton Laboratory (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. There he worked with the American physicist Ernest Wollan to develop the neutron scattering technique. They passed a beam of neutrons through a solid substance and observed how the neutrons bounced off, or were scattered. They discovered that the angle at which the neutrons were scattered showed how the atoms of that substance were arranged. Wollan died in 1984, so Shull did not get to share the 1994 Nobel Prize with his research partner. Only living scientists are eligible for the prize.
Shull was a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1955 until his retirement in 1986. He died on March 31, 2001, following a brief illness, at a hospital in Medford, Massachusetts.