Sir Owen Willans Richardson was a British physicist who received the 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on thermionic emission and for the discovery of Richardson's law. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1928, announced November 12, 1929. Owen Willans Richardson, “for his work on the thermionic phenomenon and especially for the discovery of the law named after him”. Owen Willans Richardson: born 1879, Dewsbury, United Kingdom. Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).