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University Archives & Special Collections, B-208. (Patrick Hayes)

“Local Boy Does Good”

This feature comes from the pages of the Physics Scrapbook, 1924-1960. The early material was collected by Professor Ertle Harrington and was found in his files when he retired in 1952.

The first two pages are dedicated to his former student G. Harvey Cameron and his role in the research into cosmic rays. Cameron, son of the principal of Nutana Collegiate, was a brilliant student and earned several scholastic awards before graduating with a B.Sc. in 1922.

Though named a Rhodes Scholar, Cameron opted for a teaching fellowship at the California Institute of Technology under Nobel Laureate Dr. R.A. Millikan, under whom Dr. Harrington also had studied.

It was on a visit home two years later that the local press sang his praises, noting that Cameron, at age 23, had become famous overnight as a scientist on publication of results of experiments with rays called “penetrating radiation of the atmosphere,” in which he and others had assisted  Dr. Millikan.

Cameron earned his PhD in 1926 and went on to serve for 40 years as Head of the Department of Physics at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He died in late 1977.

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