Robert William Boyle

Robert William Boyle (October 2, 1883 – April 18, 1955) was a <a href="/facts/Physicist/cQcgvSIm">physicist</a> and one of the most important early pioneers in the development of <a href="/facts/Sonar/0Rg2G40e">sonar</a>.
Boyle was born in 1883 at <a href="/facts/Carbonear/uLR2e2qa">Carbonear</a> in the <a href="/facts/Dominion_of_Newfoundland/pw3QNmII">Dominion of Newfoundland</a>. Boyle left Newfoundland for <a href="/facts/Montreal/uQQaWd1b">Montreal</a>, <a href="/facts/Quebec/4hhNvb4t">Quebec</a> in <a href="/facts/Canada/cWWFM8oc">Canada</a> where he trained at <a href="/facts/McGill_University/amouytVp">McGill University</a> under <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize/3z1Y3oFL">Nobel Prize</a> winner Sir <a href="/facts/Ernest_Rutherford/hjjMEskl">Ernest Rutherford</a>, in the then fledgling field of <a href="/facts/Radioactivity/Ya6FVjt4">radioactivity</a>. He earned McGill's first <a href="/facts/Doctor_of_Philosophy/paJumdN8">Doctor of Philosophy</a> in physics in 1909. He then moved to England to continue his work by following Rutherford to the <a href="/facts/Victoria_University_of_Manchester/foAk3n6c">University of Manchester</a>.
In 1912 he returned to Canada at the request of <a href="/facts/Henry_Marshall_Tory/7Bj9fJ4E">Henry Marshall Tory</a> to become head of the physics department at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Alberta/08ERvE5c">University of Alberta</a>, and shifted his research to <a href="/facts/Ultrasonics/31Pa5IH9">ultrasonics</a>.

During the <a href="/facts/First_World_War/vITTUanQ">First World War</a> Boyle volunteered his expertise to the <a href="/facts/British_Admiralty/wqcXukJs">British Admiralty</a> and, with the help of his old professor Ernest Rutherford, he joined the <a href="/facts/Board_of_Inventions_and_Research/3oydVdzu">Board of Inventions and Research</a> and worked with British physicist <a href="/facts/Albert_Beaumont_Wood/Y4tL8pHd">Albert Beaumont Wood</a>, a fellow student of Rutherford's.
Before 1917 the scientific teams from the <a href="/facts/Allies_of_World_War_I/HBo9sw1M">Allied countries</a> worked separately, however, after joining forces with French researchers, Boyle produced a working prototype of what the British called "<a href="/facts/ASDIC/245ooRW7">ASDIC</a>" (the first <a href="/facts/Sonar/0Rg2G40e">sonar</a>).
Early versions of the technology were being installed on <a href="/facts/Royal_Navy/Xdy8YCH7">Royal Navy</a> war ships just as the war came to an end.
In 1919 Boyle returned to Alberta and shortly thereafter became dean of the Faculty of Applied Science, a position he held until 1929. That year he joined the <a href="/facts/National_Research_Council_of_Canada/MXCsvmvD">National Research Council of Canada</a> as the director of physics, where he supervised research into <a href="/facts/Radar/jk9BTbFA">radar</a> during the Second World War. Boyle also recruited engineering professor John Hamilton Parkin from the University of Toronto to head aeronautical research at NRC.
He continued to work at the National Research Council until his retirement in 1948, when he moved back to England.
He was elected to the <a href="/facts/Royal_Society_of_Canada/betD1djj">Royal Society of Canada</a> in 1921 and awarded the <a href="/facts/Flavelle_Medal/x1mMhKY2">Flavelle Medal</a> in 1940. He died in <a href="/facts/London%2c_England/KozCCsy9">London, England</a>, aged 71.

Robert William Boyle open-in-new

Robert William Boyle