CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Charlie Martin (physicist)

British physicist

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ5085199
Source-derived summary

John Christopher "Charlie" Martin CBE (21 September 1926 – 22 March 1999) was a UK-born physicist, known colloquially as "the father of Pulsed Power".

He was educated at King's College, London.

He was instrumental in the development of a US Nuclear Weapons Effects programme in the 1970s and received thanks in the history of the Defence Nuclear Agency. He was later awarded the Defence Nuclear Agency Gold Medal in 1977, one of only a few non-US citizens to receive it.

He was awarded the first ever Erwin Marx Award in 1981 at the third IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Charlie Martin (physicist)” is british physicist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Charlie, Martin and physicist, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1926, 1999, 1977, 1981—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1926-09-21. For this dossier, Charlie, Martin and physicist is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british physicist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5085199. VIAF identifies the subject as 72205933. The Library of Congress control number is n83133507. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 1999, 1977 and 1981.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Charlie Martin (physicist)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Charlie Martin (physicist) primary sources, Charlie Martin (physicist) archive and Charlie research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Charlie Martin (physicist)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Charlie Martin (physicist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.