British Physicist Awarded Nobel Prize : Professor Powell Honoured For Work In Nuclear Physics. The 1950 Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to Professor Cecil Frank Powell Melville Wills Professor of Physics at the University of Bristol, For his "development of the photographic method for the study of nuclear processes and his advances in this connection on mesons". Professor Powell, who is 46 years of age, is the head of a University research team in nuclear physics and cosmic radiation. December 06, 1950.