Samuel Devons

Samuel Devons FRS (30 September 1914 – 6 December 2006) was a British physicist and science historian.

Biography Devons' parents were David Isaac Devons, a Lithuanian immigrant (1881–1926), and Edith Edelston from York (1891–1938). Economist Ely Devons was his brother. Samuel was born in Bangor, Wales. When he turned 16, he was awarded a scholarship for physics at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1935, Devons received his bachelor's degree at Trinity, and his PhD in 1939.

Personal life Devons married Ruth Toubkin in 1938 in England, United Kingdom, and moved to the United States in 1960, to work at Columbia University Physics Department. He had four daughters (Susan, Judith, Amanda and Cathryn), and had 12 grandchildren (Laura, Marc, Benjamin, Daniel, Jesse, David, Jonathan, Anna, Jacob, Rachel, Jessica and Matthew), and 3 great-grandchildren at the time of his death (Joel, Emily and Julia,) and later Elisheva, Nachman, Nathan, Noah, Stella, Isabella, Sophia, Gavriel, Constantino, Gabriel, Racheli, Cathryn, Hannah, Shana, Sebastian, Lucas, Benyamin, Jordan, Aryeh, Luke, Oscar, and Eliyahu, for a total of 25 great grandchildren as of 2023.

In World War II, Devons served as a senior scientific officer in the Air Ministry, Ministry of Aircraft Production and Ministry of Supply, working on antiaircraft barrages, microwaves, and radar.

Works The Excited States of Nuclei (1949) Biology and Physical Sciences (1969) (ed.) High Energy Physics and Nuclear Structure (1970) (ed.)