George Emeléus

Karl George Emeléus (4 August 1901 in London–18 June 1989 in Belfast) was an English experimental physicist who spent half a century on the staff at Queen's University Belfast. His early research in detection of nuclear radiation led on to a lifetime of research into the conduction of electricity through gases.

Biography Emeléus was the son of Karl Henry Emeléus and Ellen Briggs, the brother of inorganic chemist Harry Julius Emeléus and the father of petrologist Henry Emeleus. In 1928 he married Florence Mary Chambers, daughter of one of the founders of Chambers Motors, and they had four children – three sons and one daughter. He was known professionally as K. G. Emeléus or simply KGE, and by family and friends as George.

Education Emeléus was educated at Hastings Grammar School and at St John's College, Cambridge and was awarded a BA in 1922. Upon graduation, he joined the Cavendish Laboratory where he worked as a research student under Ernest Rutherford, James Chadwick and Edward Appleton, though Rutherford's involvement was very limited. Working with Chadwick he built a large Wilson cloud chamber; this led to his lifelong interest in gaseous electronics.

Career In 1927 he joined Queen's University Belfast (QUB) as a lecturer in Physics and later became Professor of Physics (1933–66).

Early in his career he wrote the book The Conduction of Electricity Through Gases. The Karl George Emeléus physics prize was established in 1984 by former students and friends for physics students at QUB.