Bernal, John Desmond, 1901-1971 (crystallographer)
Dates
- Existence: 1901 - 1971
Biography
John Desmond Bernal (1901-1971) was born on 10 May 1901. He attended Cambridge University, 1919-1923, before working in the Davy Faraday Laboratory, London, 1923-1927. He was appointed Lecturer in Structural Crystallography at Cambridge in 1927, and Assistant Director of Research in Crystallography, Cambridge, 1934. He was made Professor of Physics at Birkbeck College, University of London, in January 1938. During the War Bernal worked in the Ministry of Security, as a member of the Civil Defence Research Committee, 1939; at Bomber Command, 1941; and in Combined Operations, April 1942. He returned to Birkbeck in 1945, and carried out research at the Davy Faraday Laboratory, before working at the Biomolecular Research Laboratory, Torrington Square, opened in 1948. He was made Professor of Crystallography at Birkbeck College in September 1963. Bernal retired from Birkbeck in 1968, and died on 15 September 1971.