Robert Lyster Thornton | |
|---|---|
 Thornton in 1961 | |
| Born | 29 November 1908 Wootton, Bedfordshire, England |
| Died | 28 September 1985 (aged 76) |
| Citizenship | Britain United States |
| Alma mater | McGill University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Washington University in St. Louis Clinton Engineer Works Lawrence Livermore Laboratory |
| Thesis | The Stark effect for krypton; Stark intensities in hydrogen and helium (1933) |
| Doctoral advisor | John Stuart Foster |
Robert Lyster Thornton (29 November 1908 – 28 September 1985) was a British-Canadian-American physicist who worked on the cyclotrons at Ernest Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory in the 1930s. During World War II he assisted with the development of the calutron as part of the Manhattan Project. He returned to Berkeley in 1945 to lead the construction of the 184-inch (470 cm) cyclotron, and spent the rest of his career there.