Albert Edward Litherland

Litherland, Albert Edward

Albert Edward Litherland, "Ted," nuclear physicist (b at Wallasey, Eng 12 Mar 1928). Ted Litherland received a BSc in 1949 and a PhD in 1955 from the U of Liverpool. He was a National Research Council Fellow (1953-55) and a career scientist (1955-66) with Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. In 1966 he was appointed a professor of physics at U of T and a university professor in 1979. He was visiting professor at Oxford in 1960-61 and 1972-73. Litherland has published over 100 scientific papers in such areas as electron-induced fission, nuclear spectroscopy, collective motions in light nuclei and accelerator design.

In 1982, Ted Litherland established the world-class Isotrace Laboratory at Toronto using nuclear techniques in a supersensitive mass spectrometer for archaeological dating, trace element detection, etc. He holds fellowships in the Royal Societies of London and of Canada and in the American Physical Society. Awards include the Gold Medal of the Canadian Assn of Physicists (1971), the Rutherford Medal of the British Institute of Physics (1974), a Killam scholarship (1980) and a Guggenheim (1986). The Royal Society of Canada awarded Litherland the Henry Marshall Tory Medal in 1993, the year he retired from the U of T. In 1998 he was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree by the U of T.