Sir Nevill Mott, 1905–96, British physicist. A professor at the Univ. of Bristol (1933–54) and the Univ. of Cambridge (1954–71), Mott won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 for a lifetime of research into the magnetic and electrical properties of noncrystalline solids. He shared the award with P. W. Anderson and J. H. Van Vleck, who had pursued independent research. Mott's accomplishments include explaining theoretically the effect of light on a photographic emulsion and outlining the transition of substances from metallic to nonmetallic states. He wrote A Life in Science (1995).

See E. A. Davis, ed., Nevill Mott: Reminiscenses and Appreciations (1998).

Philip Warren Anderson, 1923–, American physicist, b. Indianapolis, Ind., Ph.D. Harvard, 1949. After graduation he worked at Bell Laboratories; in 1975 he became a professor of physics at Princeton. In 1977 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his investigations into the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, which allowed for the development of electronic switching and memory devices in computers. Co-researchers Sir Nevill F. Mott and John H. Van Vleck shared the award with Anderson.