Lawrence Bragg

Sir
Lawrence Bragg
CH OBE MC FRS
Sir Lawrence Bragg CH OBE MC FRS
	Bragg in 1915
3rd Director of the National Physical Laboratory
	In office; 1937–1938
Preceded by	Frank Edward Smith (acting)
Succeeded by	Charles Galton Darwin
Personal details
Born	William Lawrence Bragg; 31 March 1890; Adelaide, Colony of South Australia
Died	1 July 1971 (aged 81); Ipswich, England, UK
Education	Queen's College, North Adelaide; St Peter's College, Adelaide;
Alma mater	University of Adelaide; Trinity College, Cambridge;
Known for	Bragg's law (1913)
Title	Langworthy Professor ; (1919–37); Cavendish Professor of Physics (1938–53); Fullerian Professor of Chemistry (1953–66);
Spouse	Alice Hopkinson (m. 1921)
Children	4, including Stephen
Father	William Henry Bragg
Relatives	Charles Todd (grandfather)
Awards	Matteucci Medal (1915); Nobel Prize in Physics (1915); Hughes Medal (1931); Knight Bachelor (1941); Royal Medal (1946); Copley Medal (1966); Order of the Companions of Honour (1967);
	Scientific career
Fields	X-ray crystallography
Institutions	Trinity College, Cambridge (1914–19); Victoria University of Manchester (1919–37); National Physical Laboratory (1937–38); Cavendish Laboratory ; (1938–53); Royal Institution (1953–66);
Academic advisors	J. J. Thomson; William Henry Bragg;
Doctoral students	Evan James Williams (1926); Max Perutz (1940); Alex Stokes (1943);
Other notable students	George W. Brindley; Sivaramakrishna Chandrasekhar; John Crank; Marcelo Damy; Isidor Fankuchen; Peter Hirsch; John Kendrew; W. H. Zachariasen;

Sir William Lawrence Bragg (31 March 1890 – 1 July 1971) was a British physicist who shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his father, William Henry Bragg, "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays",^[5] an important step in the development of X-ray crystallography.^[6]

As of 2024, Bragg is the youngest ever Nobel laureate in physics, or in any science category, having received the award at the age of 25.^[7] Bragg was the director of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, when James D. Watson and Francis Crick reported the discovery of the structure of DNA in February 1953.

^ ^a ^b "Lawrence Bragg - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
^ "National Library of Wales: From Warfare to Welfare 1939–59". Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
^ "Alexander Stokes". The Telegraph. 28 February 2003. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "W. Lawrence Bragg - Physics Tree". academictree.org. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1915". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
^ Stoddart, Charlotte (1 March 2022). "Structural biology: How proteins got their close-up". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-022822-1. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
^ "Facts on the Nobel Prize in Physics". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 16 January 2016.

[MGP-1] "Lawrence Bragg - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 31 May 2025.

[NLW-2] "National Library of Wales: From Warfare to Welfare 1939–59". Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.

[3] "Alexander Stokes". The Telegraph. 28 February 2003. Retrieved 16 January 2016.

[PhysicsTree-4] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g "W. Lawrence Bragg - Physics Tree". academictree.org. Retrieved 1 September 2025.

[NobelBragg-5] "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1915". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 26 April 2018.

[Stoddart-6] Stoddart, Charlotte (1 March 2022). "Structural biology: How proteins got their close-up". Knowable Magazine. doi:10.1146/knowable-022822-1. Retrieved 25 March 2022.

[7] "Facts on the Nobel Prize in Physics". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 16 January 2016.

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