John Charles Douglas MILTON

1924 - 2022

JOHN CHARLES DOUGLAS (DOUG) MILTON June 1, 1924 - May 29, 2022 Doug Milton, BSc (Manitoba, Hons Physics), PhD (Princeton, Physics), only child of the late Frances (Craigie) and William (Bill) Milton. Doug was born in Regina in 1924 but grew up in Winnipeg during the depression and thus did not start school until 7. By all reports he was a good student and very musical, soon joining every choir he could. He also became an accomplished pianist completing the full Royal Conservatory of Music program while in early high school. In his final year of an honours degree at the University of Manitoba, he specialized in physics, but when asked by a girl friend's father what a physicist did, he had to admit he was not sure. Based on a suggestion from a good friend he decided to go to Princeton, where he initially started working with Bob Hofstader developing gamma detectors, but Bob left for Stanford (and subsequently won a Noble prize), so Doug choose Harry Fulbright as a thesis advisor. Many years later, and to the amusement of one of his granddaughters, he said he thought that he chose to work with Harry "because he was so impressed that Harry could lead the cleanup after the Princeton Cyclotron fire, and still exit with a clean white shirt and tie". Together they were the first to measure the 2nd forbidden beta spectra of Be10 and Cl36. Princeton was an exciting place to be at the time and Doug enjoyed attending regular seminars also attended by Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer. Doug arrived in Deep River in 1951 to begin working in Nuclear Physics at NRX. He was soon drafted into the Staff House Club where he met the Secretary of the Club, Gwen Shaw. In 1953, Gwen and Doug were married, beginning a wonderful partnership that lasted for more than 65 years, each supporting the other through many transitions and a number of adventures. The NRX accident in 1952 stopped the physics experiments and since NRU was still under construction, Doug and John Fraser began a "table-top" experiment measuring the beta angular correlation, and thus measured the quadrupole moment of Er166 the first such measurement on a radioactive element. When NRU came online, Doug and John began making fission measurements, making use of a new time-of-flight technique with much improved accuracy and were able to show the double hump nature of the fission barrier. Aside from two sabbatical years, all of Doug's professional career was at AECL, first as Scientist, then Nuclear Physics Branch Head, Director of the Physics Division, and as Vice-President, Physics and Health Sciences. Doug worked to create an environment where good high quality scientific research could be carried out and actively supported the careers of a number of very successful physicists. He was also active in the overall Canadian Physic community, as a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the American Physics Society, President of the Canadian Association of Physicists and member of several Advisory Boards, most notably ABOT (the Advisory Board On TRIUMF) and the advisory board for the Tokamak de Varennes and CFFTP (Canadian Fuel and Fusion). Upon retirement, Doug became one of CRNL's first researchers emeritus, actively participating in Accelerator Mass Spectroscopy Experiments (AMS). As a branch head, Doug gave a presentation to senior management that included the suggestion the future of nuclear physics lay in heavy ion physics and that they should consider developing a suitable facility. This kicked off an innovative project to build a super conducting cyclotron, however funding was tight and progress slow. Despite taking on ever more senior roles, Doug always tried to ensure any remaining research funds were directed to completing the project. Eventually the full project with the Tandem Accelerator injecting into the Super Conducting Cyclotron came online and TASCC was born. It was an excellent example of low budget Canadian ingenuity, and a significant member of the small but very active heavy ion research facilities. When ACEL decided that nuclear physics was no longer part of their core mission and thus decided to close TASCC, Doug worked tirelessly to find alternative homes for TASCC. Management was unwilling to listen, and when it was clear AECL would not allow anything other than scrapping the facility, Doug severed all relations with the company. One of Doug and Gwen's big projects was their house, a truly joint project. From Gwen acting as the general contractor, directing the work on site while pregnant, to Doug's state of the art electrical wiring it was a special project. They were also avid gardeners and created a large garden with 2 waterfalls, 4 pools and a wandering stream. Gwen and Doug were passionate about Deep River, so in 2001 Gwen was one of the founders of the Deep River and District Community Foundation, with strong support from Doug. In the early years, Doug was foundation treasurer and later acted a couple of terms as Chair. In many ways the foundation was the culmination of lives spent serving the community, starting with the Staff Hotel committee, through building the yacht club (Doug did much of the original wiring), and the child's auditorium project.