Frank Allen (physicist)

Frank Allen
Born	1874 Meductic, New Brunswick
Died	19 Nov. 1965
Fields	Physics
Institutions	University of Manitoba
Notable awards	Henry Marshall Tory Medal (1944)

Frank Allen, FRSC (1874 – 19 November 1965) was a Canadian academic and physicist, specializing in physiological optics.^[1]

Biography

Born in New Brunswick, Frank Allen received his bachelor's degree in 1895 from the University of New Brunswick with highest honours in physics and chemistry and then his M.A. there in 1897. In 1902 he received his PhD in physics from Cornell University with a thesis on physiological optics. In 1904 Allen accepted the founding chair of the physics department at the University of Manitoba, serving as the head of the physics department until his retirement in 1944. In his career he published about 60 scientific papers,^[2] most of which concerned physiological optics and the physics of the other mammalian senses. He was also the author of two critically acclaimed books, The Universe, from Crystal Spheres to Relativity (1931)^[3] and Responses of the Organism to Stimulation (1971).^[4] In 1912, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was awarded the Society's Henry Marshall Tory Medal in 1944.^[5]

Legacy

Frank Allen and his wife had a daughter and two sons, one of whom was John Frank Allen, a noted low-temperature physicist. The Allen Building on the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry Campus is named in honour of Frank Allen.^[6]

References

1. Memorable Manitobans: Frank Allen (1874–1965)
2. University of Manitoba - Libraries - Frank Allen fonds
3. Gilchrist, L. (1932). "Review: The Universe, from Crystal Spheres to Relativity, by Frank Allen". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 26: 139–140. Bibcode:1932JRASC..26..139Y.
4. Responses of the organism to stimulation. (Book, 1971) WorldCat.org
5. Sutherland, Brian P. (June 1966). "Obituary: Frank Allen". Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation. 18: 51.
6. University of Manitoba, Fort Garry, Campus Map