Williams, Evan James, 1903-1945

Evan James Williams was born on August 8th 1903, in Cwmsychpant near Llanybydder, Carmarthenshire. He received his education at Llandysul County School. Although a talented writer, winning several competitions in local eisteddfodau for his literary compositions, his main interest was science. In 1919 he won a scholarship to study at Swansea Technical College, which became the University of Wales, Swansea the following year.

He left Swansea with his MSc in 1924, and went on to work with Professor W L Bragg at the University of Manchester. His research there earned him his PhD. He then attended Cambridge University as an 1851 Exhibition student, receiving a PhD in 1929. This was added to by a DSc Wales the following year.

Williams continued his academic research, spending 1933 at the Niels Bohr Institute of Physics in Copenhagen. On his return, he became an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Manchester, followed by a period as Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. In 1938, he was offered the Chair of Physics at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he would remain until his death in 1945.

Williams was made FRS in 1939. During the Second World War, he served in the Air Ministry and Admiralty. Primarily known as the discoverer of pi-meson decay, he published over thirty academic works, bringing a semi-classical approach to modern physics.