This book presents the life and work of Professor Evan James Williams, described as one of Wales’s most eminent scientists. Williams played a prominent part in the early twentieth-century revolution in physics with the emergence of quantum science, and was an able experimentalist and accomplished theoretician who made notable contributions in atomic physics and the discovery of a new elementary particle. From humble beginnings in rural Cardiganshire, his stellar career is charted in this book as he climbed the academic ladder at a number of universities, culminating in his appointment as Professor of Physics at Aberystwyth, and election to a Fellowship of the Royal Society. During the Second World War, Williams was instrumental in applying Operational Research to thwart the threat of German submarines in the Atlantic; his career was cut short, however, by his early death in 1945.

This is an English language adaptation of a book which was published in Welsh by the same author by UWP, Evan James Williams: Ffisegydd yr Atom. The book discusses his career – what he achieved along those he worked with and the places he worked, most importantly the Physics Department at Aberystwyth University – and outlines his scientific service during the war. It also looks at the man himself – his upbringing in a Welsh speaking home and community in Ceredigion - through the accounts given by those who knew him.