Louis Harold Gray

Career

• 1933 – Hospital physicist at Mount Vernon Hospital, London
• 1936 – Developed the Bragg–Gray equation, the basis for the cavity ionization method of measuring gamma-ray energy absorption by materials
• 1937 – Built an early neutron generator at Mount Vernon Hospital
• 1938 – Studied biological effects of neutrons using the generator
• 1940 – Developed concept of RBE (Relative Biological Effectiveness) of doses of neutrons
• 1952 – Initiated research into cells in hypoxic tumors and hyperbaric oxygen
• 1953 – Oliver Scott established the British Empire Cancer Campaign Research Unit in Radiobiology at Mount Vernon Hospital with Hal Gray as director which in 1970 became the Cancer Research Campaign's Gray Laboratory and then (in 2001) the Gray Cancer Institute.
• 1953–1960 – Under Gray's direction, Jack W. Boag developed pulse radiolysis
• 1962 – Ed Hart, of Argonne National Laboratory, and Jack Boag discovered the hydrated electron using pulse radiolysis at the Gray Laboratory – this discovery initiated a new direction of research that is still very active today and is vital for understanding the effects of radiation on biological tissue, for instance in cancer treatment.