Oliphant, Sir Mark

Oliphant, Sir Mark (1901-2000), Australian scientist.

Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant studied at Cambridge University.

Afterwards he did experiments with lithium, the lightest metal known, and in 1937 he became a professor at Birmingham University.

During the Second World War (1939-45), he went to the United States and helped to make the first atomic bombs. Then he returned to Birmingham and finished building a large atom-smashing machine.

In 1950 he went back to Australia to be a professor at the National University, Canberra and in 1963 he began doing experiments there with certain kinds of gases.

He became Governor of South Australia.