English physicist

Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett was a physicist with wide-ranging scientific and personal interests. He is best known for his improvements to the Wilson cloud chamber leading to important discoveries about fundamental particles and cosmic rays. His contributions to the study of magnetism helped confirm continental drift theory. Throughout his career he was admired as an ingenious experimenter. Blackett was involved in British military defense strategies during World War II, but remained an outspoken critic of Western nuclear policies to the end of his life. For his work with the Wilson cloud chamber, Blackett was awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in physics.

Blackett was born in London, England to Arthur Stuart and Caroline Frances Maynard Blackett. His grandfather had been Anglican vicar of Croydon, Surrey, and his father was a stockbroker. As a child he developed a strong interest in...