George Paget Thomson was born in Cambridge on 3 May 1892 and died there on 10 September 1975. His father, Joseph John Thomson, had been Cavendish Professor for seven years when he was born, while his mother (Rose Paget) was the daughter of another very distinguished Cambridge professor, and before marrying J. J. Thomson had worked as one of his students in the Cavendish Laboratory. Cambridge, physics and mathematics were in George’s blood and he greatly enriched the first two of these. Best known for the discovery of the diffraction of electrons, he was a substantial contributor, scientifically and politically, to the early stages of the study of neutrons and to their use by way of the uranium chain-reaction; he also independently initiated work on the still-intractable problem of releasing energy by controlled nuclear fusion. Largely, though not originally, through his service in World War I, aerodynamics was an important interest for Thomson; in this, his mathematical skill was joined with a spirit of practical enquiry, for he flew aircraft as well as theorizing about them. After professorships in Aberdeen and London, during which the bulk of his scientific and public work was done, he returned to Cambridge as Master of Corpus Christi College, where he had been a young Fellow after graduating from Trinity College. Through this appointment, Corpus gained a still vigorous and a far-sighted Head, while Thomson had the satisfaction of guiding new college ventures and the enjoyment of being a superb host in Hall, Combination Room and Master’s Lodge.
David Aubin and Catherine Goldstein (eds.), The War of Guns and Mathematics: Mathematical Practice and Communities in France and Its Western Allies around World War I. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society, 2014. Pp. xviii + 391. ISBN 978-1-4704-1469-6. $126.00 (hardback).