DAVISON

RUSSIA (see also List of Individuals)

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10.7.1908 Vasilsursk Nizhegorod/RU - 24.1.1961/CA

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Boris Borisovich Davison was born in the Gorky Oblast and educated in the Soviet Union. In 1931 he graduated from the University of Leningrad, and was then engaged in hydrology for about seven years. Through his English grandfather he had a tie with the United Kingdom, and when in 1938 he was requested either to renounce British nationality or leave the USSR, he decided for the latter. He worked for a short period with Louis Rosenhead (1906-1984) at Liverpool University, but his health broke down. After convalescence Davison joined the atomic energy research team at the University of Birmingham in 1942. His powers in mathematics enabled him to make important contributions, particularly to the neutron transport theory, a subject that was to occupy most of his attention for the rest of his life. Davison was awarded the PhD title of the University of Birmingham in 1944.

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Davison's connection with Canada started when he was joined the Montreal Laboratory of the joint United Kingdom-Canadian Atomic Energy Project in 1943. He moved to the new Chalk River Laboratory as a Member of the United Kingdom staff in the Theoretical Physics Branch and in 1947 returned to the UK to work at Harwell. In 1954 Davison joined the staff of the Computation Centre of the University of Toronto, lectured in numerical analysis and was appointed associate professor of physics in 1960. His knowledge, experience and talent have contributed in many ways to the technical success of the Canadian Atomic Energy program. Much of Davison's work was concerned with improving mathematical representation of hydrodynamic and nuclear processes and with the associated computational problems. He was a ready inventor of algorithms for computing and avoiding pathological conditions in large calculations. He was a gentle, shy man, painstaking, kind and generous in helping his fellows, but intolerant of pretence.

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_{Anonymous (1961). Boris Davison. Canadian Who's who 9. Trans-Canada Press: Toronto. Davison, B.B., Sykes, J.B. (1957). Neutron transport theory. Clarendon Press: Oxford. Peierls, R.E. (1979). Impressions of Boris Davison. Atomic Energy of Canada: Ottawa. Watson, W.H. (1961). Prof. Boris Davison. Nature 190(4773): 306-307. http://www.nea.fr/html/dbprog/mmrw/ http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:Fx7d7Biw8_wJ:www.nea.fr/html/dbprog/mmrw/ Prog_N_En/PNE.pdf+boris+davison+canadian+who%27s+who&hl=de&gl=ch&ct=clnk& cd=1}