| Authorised form of name | Rotblat; Sir; Joseph (1908 - 2005) |
| Dates | 1908 - 2005 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Warsaw, Poland |
| Date of birth | 04/11/1908 |
| Date of death | 31/08/2005 |
| Occupation | Nuclear physicist; Medical physicist; campaigner for nuclear disarmament |
| Activity | Education:
While working as an electrician attended night school, awarded masters degree in physics by Free University of Poland (1932)
Career:
Assistant Director, Atomic Physics Institute, Warsaw; invited by Sir James Chadwick to join Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Oliver Lodge Fellowship (1939); Manhattan Project, Los Alamos (1944), resigned on grounds of conscience; returned to Liverpool University (1945), Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics (1946), joint Head of Department (1948); Professor of Physics, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School (1950-1976); published paper on fallout from nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll (1955); established Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (1955) - series of conferences to address the danger posed by nuclear weapons and to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, Secretary General and then President (1988); honorary doctorate, University of Liverpool (1989); Albert Einstein Peace Prize (1998)
Medals and prizes:
Nobel Prize (Peace) 1995
Honours:
CBE 1965; KCMG 1998 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 09/03/1995 |
| Age at election | 86 |
| Relationships | Son of Zygmunt Rotblat, married Tola Gryn (died during German occupation of Poland) |
| Source | Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs 2007, Volume 53, pp 309-326 by R A Hinde CBE (Hons) FBA FRS and J L Finney
Obituary in The Times (2 September 2005)
Sources:
Reiner Braun et al, ed., 'Joseph Rotbalt: visionary for peace' (2007)
Anne Purkiss 'Scientists 1985 - 2010; Portraits of Fellows of the Royal Society' 2010, p. 42 |
| Code | NA4775 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1995/28 | Rotblat, Sir Joseph: certificate of election to the Royal Society | 1994 |
| GLB/65/95/56 | George Lindor Brown to J Rotblat, Pugwash Continuing Committee, Asmara Road, London | 11 May 1962 |
| GLB/65/95/55 | J Rotblat, Pugwash Continuing Committee, Asmara Road, London to Brown | 22 February 1962 |
| PB/9/1/96/2 | Correspondence on the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, 1961 | 1961 |
| IM/003895 | Rotblat, Sir Joseph | 1995 |
| IM/007183 | Rotblat, Sir Joseph | ca. 1948 |
| PB/9/1/96/5 | Correspondence on the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, 1964-1966 | 1964-1966 |
| PB/9/1/96/4 | Correspondence on the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, 1963 | 1963 |
| RR/67/390 | Memorandum from J D Griffith Davies, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society on a paper 'Application of the coincidence method for measurements of short life periods' by Joseph Rotblat to William Lawrence Bragg | 17 September 1940 |
| PB/9/1/96/3 | Correspondence on the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, 1962 | 1962 |
| PB/1/33/1/8 | Nobel Prize | 1948 |
| IM/007184 | Rotblat, Sir Joseph | ca. 1948 |