June 5, 1907 - September 19, 1995was a German-born Britishphysicist

Who had a major role inbritain's nuclear programme.who laid the theoretical foundations for the creation of the first atomic bomb.

SIR RUDOLF PEIERS

1

1907 Jun 5thBorn in Berlin, Germany.1925 to 1933Studied at the Universities of Berlin, Munich, and Leipzig.1937: He became Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Birmingham.1939: He started working on atomic research with Otto Robert Frisch and James Chadwick.1940: In March 1940, he co-authored the FrischPeierls memorandum with Otto Robert Frisch.1943: Following the signing of the Quebec Agreement in August 1943, Peierls joined the Manhattan Project, located in the United States.

Sir Rudolf Peierls's Timeline

1945 Jul 16thWitnessed the Trinity test1950: He was also responsible for the recruitment of his compatriot Klaus Fuchs to the British project, an action which was to result in Peierls falling under suspicion when Fuchs was exposed as a Soviet spy in 1950.1963: After the war, Peierls reassumed his position in the physics department at the University of Birmingham where he worked until 1963 before joining the University of Oxford as Wykeham Professor of Physics.1968Knighted as a Knight Bachelor.1980Received the Enrico Fermi Award.1995 Sep 19thDied in Oxford, England

Rudolf Peierls' parents were Heinrich Peierls and Elizabeth Weigert and he was their only child. From a young age Rudolf was interested in science and engineering.

Early Life

From 1925 to 1929 Peierls studied at universities in Berlin and MunichIn 1929 he received his doctoral degree from the University of LeipzigFrom 1933 to 1935 he was at the University of Manchester, where his early work in quantum theory led to studies in nuclear physics.From 1935 to 1937, when he became a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Birmingham.Education

In March 1940, he co-authored the FrischPeierls memorandum with Otto Robert Frisch.

In 1941 its findings made their way to the United States through the report of the MAUD CommitteeFrischPeierls memorandum

Signing of the Quebec Agreement in August, 1943, Peierls joined the Manhattan Project, located in the United States. Peierls was part of the British team, along with Klaus FuchsManhattan Project

Peierls was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil Division) in 1945 Appointment as a CBE and was knighted in 1968. Appointment as a Knight Bachelor. Awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1962, and In 1980 he received the Enrico Fermi Award from the United States

Honours

In 1939, he started working on atomic research with Otto Robert Frisch and James Chadwick. Ironically, both Peierls and Frisch were excluded from working on radar (then known as RDF) as it was considered too secret for scientists with foreign backgrounds. World War II

He was studying on a Rockefeller Scholarship at Cambridge University when Adolf Hitler came to power in his native Germany. Moving back to Cambridge, he worked with P. G. L. Kapur at the Mond Laboratory on superconductivity and liquid helium. In 1937, he became Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Birmingham.

Leading up to World War II

On 2 October 2004, the building housing the sub-department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford was formally named the Sir Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics.

Legacy

After the war, Peierls reassumed his position in the physics department at the University of Birmingham where he worked until 1963 before joining the University of Oxford. At Birmingham he worked on nuclear forces, scattering, quantum field theories, collective motion in nuclei, transport theory, and statistical mechanics. Also while at Birmingham. He worked as a consultant to the British atomic programme at Harwell. He retired from Oxford in 1974.

Post-war

He wrote several books including Quantum Theory of Solids, The Laws of Nature (1955), Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1979),More Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1991) and An autobiography, Bird of Passage (1985). he worked on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, was President of the Atomic Scientists' Association in the UK, and was a major player in the Pugwash movement.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Ernst-Peierlshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Peierlshttp://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Peierls.htmlhttp://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Peierls.shtmlhttp://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/rudolf-peierls

Reference

THANKS FOR WATCHING THIS PRESENTATION