Boris Davison (7 October 1908 – 24 January 1961) was a Russian-born mathematical physicist.

Biography

Boris Borisovich Davison was born 7 October 1908 in Vasilsursk, Gorky Oblast, Russia. ^[1] He attended Leningrad State University, graduating in 1931. ^{[2] [1]} He then worked at the State Hydrological Institute.

Davison's grandfather had been British, and in 1938 Davison was given a choice – either renounce his British nationality or leave the Soviet Union. He chose to emigrate to the United Kingdom. ^{[2] [1]} He then briefly worked with Louis Rosenhead at the University of Liverpool but withdrew from work due to illness. ^{[1] [2]}

In 1942 he joined the University of Birmingham's atomic energy research team working under Rudolf Peierls, and in 1944 the university awarded him a PhD. ^{[2] [1]}

In 1943 he moved to Canada to work under George Placzek at the Montreal Laboratory of the joint British-Canadian atomic energy project. ^{[2] [1] [3]} In October 1945 he briefly joined the British Mission at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, part of the Manhattan Project which had just developed the atom bomb. ^[4] In 1946 Davison married Olga Hansen. ^[5]

He worked at Chalk River Laboratory in Ontario before returning to the UK in 1947 to work at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire. ^{[2] [1]}

In 1953 his security clearance was revoked by the British government because his parents still lived in the Soviet Union, potentially putting Davison at risk of blackmail. ^[6] He was given a year's leave of absence working at the University of Birmingham. ^{[7] [4]} Davison then emigrated to Canada in 1954, where he took up a position at the computation centre at the University of Toronto. ^{[3] [4]}

In 1957 he authored the book Neutron Transport Theory. ^[2]

Davison died suddenly at his home in Toronto on 24 January 1961 at the age of 52. ^{[5] [2] [8]}

Books

• Boris, Davison (1957). Neutron Transport Theory. Oxford University Press. ISBN  978-0-19-851207-3.
• Davison, B. (1979). Collected Papers of Boris Davison. Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

References

Further reading

• Kushneriuk, S. A. (October 1976). A Bibliography of the Publications of Boris Davison (PDF). Chalk River: Atomic Energy of Canada.