James_Chadwick

James Chadwick most recognized for his discovery of the neutron was born in Cheshire, England, on October 20th, 1891, the son of John Joseph Chadwick and Anne Mary Knowles. As a child he had always been interested by physics he attended Manchester High School prior to entering Manchester University he graduated from the Honours School of Physics and spent the next two years under Professor Rutherford in the Physical Laboratory in Manchester where he worked on various problems concerning radioactivity, gaining his M.Sc. That same year he was awarded the 1851 Exhibition Scholarship and proceeded to Berlin to work in the Physikalisch Technische Reichsanstalt at Charlottenburg under Professor H. Geiger. He was elected Fellow of Gonville and Caius College and became Assistant Director of Research in the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1927 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society which was a large social achievement. During World War I, he was interned in the Zivilgefangenenlager, Ruhleben. After the war in 1919 he returned to England to accept the Wollaston Studentship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and to resume work under Rutherford, who in the meantime had moved to the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. Rutherford had succeeded that year in disintegrating atoms by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, with the emission of a proton. This was the first artificial nuclear transformation. In Cambridge, Chadwick joined Rutherford in accomplishing the transmutation of other light elements by bombardment with alpha particles, and in making studies of the properties and structure of atomic nuclei. In 1932 James Chadwick made a ground breaking discovery by proving the existence of neutrons, particles devoid of any electrical charge. In contrast with the alpha rays which are charged, and therefore repelled by the considerable electrical forces present in the nuclei of heavy atoms, this new tool in atomic disintegration need not overcome any electric barrier and is capable of penetrating and splitting the nuclei of even the heaviest elements. Preparing the way towards the fission of Uranium 235 and the creation of the atomic bomb. He remained at Cambridge until he was elected to the Lyon Jones Chair of Physics in the University of Liverpool. From 1943 to 1946 he worked in the United States as Head of the British Mission drawn to the Manhattan Project for the development of the atomic bomb. He then returned to England and, retired from active physics and his position at Liverpool on his election as Master of Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge and than from 1957 to 1962 he was a part time member of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Apart from all hid numerous achievements Sir James Chadwick was knighted in 1945, 13 years after discovering the neutron. Timeline 1891 Born in Manchester 1908 Graduated Manchester University 1913 M.Sc. degree 1921 PhD in physics 1921-23 Works at Manchester under Ernest Rutherford on radioactivity. 1921-1935 Fellow of Gonville and Caius College 1923 Assistant director of radioactive research in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge 1925 Married Aileen Stewart-Brown of Liverpool 1927 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 1932 Discovers the neutron 1935 Receives the Nobel Prize for physics 1935–48 Lyon Jones Chair of Physics in the University of Liverpool 1945 Knighted KBE 1943-46 worked in the United States as Head of the British Mission attached to the Manhattan Project for the development of the atomic bomb. 1948 Retired from active physics. 1948–59 master of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 1950 Received the Copley Medal 1951 Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia