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School of Physical and Chemical Sciences

Sir Professor Joseph Rotblatt

Sir Professor Joseph Rotblatt

Joseph Rotblatt studied under James Chadwick, the winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the neutron.  His early work focused on nuclear reactions prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.  Like many of his generation, Rotblatt worked on the Tube Alloys project, the British wartime atomic bomb programme, before joining the Manhattan project. The realization of the devastating impact of using an atomic bomb was something that Rotblatt was aware of, and as soon as it became apparent that the much-feared German bomb programme had been abandoned, he asked to leave the project on humanitarian grounds. Following the realization of the atomic bomb as a result of the Manhattan project, Rotblatt became a strong critic of the nuclear arms race and remained an influential person in the realm of nuclear nonproliferation.

Joseph Rotblatt joined St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1949, and remained a part of the university following his retirement in 1976.  He taught to eager physics students in our lecture theatres on the Mile End Campus.  In 1995 Rotblatt shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs “for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms”.

You can learn more about Joseph Rotblatt’s achievements on the Nobel Prize website at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1995/rotblat/facts/.

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