94:, one of a group of physicists employed by London hospitals during the war to work on issues related to the emerging technology of X-rays, and the use of radium to treat cancer. These issues would become the central focus of Farmer's subsequent career. One of the instruments he invented while at Middlesex, the Farmer
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deep therapy X-Ray machines installed, with which Farmer was closely familiar from his time working at
Marconi, and as a result the hospital was able to keep these machines in clinical use for many years. Farmer's team brought together experts in
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technology, providing services in these areas to the entire region of
Northern England, which had previously had none. At the time of Frank Farmer's retirement in 1978, the department had branches in
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and environmental campaigner, living a frugal life with a solar panel installed on the roof of his house, and a public opponent of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
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for cancer treatment, installed in 1963, and numerous clinical uses of the radioisotope tracer technique, developed using radio-isotopes from the nuclear reactors at
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in 1966. While at the RVI, Farmer and his team turned the facility into a renowned centre for research into medical applications of
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and many other professional radiography and research bodies, and authored a large number of scientific papers. He was awarded an
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122:, instrumentation and physiological measurement. Specific innovations included the world's first gantry-mounted
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In 1960, Frank Farmer married Dr. Marion
Bethune, a paediatric cardiologist, who died before him. He died of
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66:, where he completed a four-year PhD on radio-wave propagation in the ionosphere, working as part of
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22:(18 September 1912 – 16 July 2004) was an English physicist, and a pioneer in the application of
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aiming to improve the lives of the homeless, especially in retirement. He was also a member of
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138:. When the new department opened, Farmer was appointed first Professor of Medical Physics at
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awarded him the Cook
Bicentenary Award for his dedication to the shortwave radio community.
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In 1940, Farmer began working as assistant physicist in the radiography department at
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before graduating with a first-class honours degree in electrical engineering from
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Farmer was
President of the Hospital Physicists Association (1959–60; now the
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70:'s research group. He continued researching this topic thereafter at the
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International
Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements
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in St. Oswald's
Hospice in Newcastle in 2004, aged 91.
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in 1973 for services to physics applied to medicine.
101:In 1945 he moved to become head physicist at the
159:Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine
165:(1973–74). During his career he served on the
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442:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
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62:in 1933. He then continued to the
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437:People educated at Eltham College
309:Haggith, John (27 August 2004).
109:. The hospital at that time had
46:Frank Taylor Farmer was born in
427:Alumni of King's College London
202:Wireless Institute of Australia
163:British Institute of Radiology
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250:"Biographies and obituaries"
196:He was also a keen amateur
124:linear particle accelerator
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343:"Medical Physics Museum"
311:"Obituary: Frank Farmer"
200:enthusiast. In 1977 the
103:Royal Victoria Infirmary
42:Early life and education
422:People from Bexleyheath
72:Marconi Research Centre
64:University of Cambridge
254:Radiography Newcastle
60:King's College London
191:Friends of the Earth
181:Farmer was a devout
140:Newcastle University
353:on 28 November 2016
187:Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
107:Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
447:Medical physicists
432:English physicists
118:, radio-isotopes,
92:Middlesex Hospital
386:on 1 October 2007
209:pancreatic cancer
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382:. Archived from
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68:J. A. Ratcliffe
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388:. Retrieved
384:the original
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355:. Retrieved
351:the original
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318:. Retrieved
315:The Guardian
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257:. Retrieved
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136:World War II
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17:Frank Farmer
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417:2004 deaths
412:1912 births
357:27 November
320:27 November
259:27 November
120:ultrasonics
48:Bexleyheath
406:Categories
390:11 January
215:References
161:) and the
76:Chelmsford
347:ucl.ac.uk
105:(RVI) in
96:dosimeter
36:radiation
148:Teesside
128:Amersham
28:medicine
152:Cumbria
132:Harwell
111:Marconi
24:physics
183:Quaker
86:Career
32:cancer
80:Essex
74:near
392:2007
359:2016
322:2016
261:2016
150:and
130:and
52:Kent
171:OBE
26:to
20:OBE
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