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Sir Owen Willans Richardson (April 26, 1879 - February 15, 1959) was a British physicist, a professor at Princeton University from 1906 to 1913, and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1928 "for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him". He was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, England, the only son of Joshua Henry and Charlotte Maria Richardson. He was educated at Batley Grammar School, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1900 having gained First Class Honours in Natural Science. He was awarded the Hughes medal by the Royal Society (of which he was a Fellow) in 1920 for his work in thermionics, which is the basis for the vacuum tube. He also researched the photoelectric effect, the gyromagnetic effect, the emission of electrons by chemical reactions, soft X-rays, and the spectrum of hydrogen. He was knighted in 1939. His nephew was physicist Richard Davisson.He died in 1959 aged 79.
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