Sir James Chadwick (October 20, 1891 – July 24, 1974) was an English physicist who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the elementary particle neutron.
James Chadwick was born on October 20, 1891 in Bollington, England. His father's name was John Joseph Chadwick. James Chadwick completed his early education at Manchester Grammar School and graduated from the University of Manchester in 1911, and then spent 1911 to 1913 under the guidance of Ernest Rutherford at the Physical Laboratory, Manchester, conducting research on the measurement of the energy of radiation emitted by atoms of radioactive elements and their origin. Prof. in Berlin in 1913. He began work on radioactivity under Geiger. Being a British citizen, he continued to work with scientists such as Max Planck, Nernst, Meitner, and evaluated the energy of beta-particles emitted from elementary elements, despite the hardships he faced during World War I. This study is known as beta-ray spectroscopy.
In 1932, he was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Society and the Huygens Medal. In 1945, he was given knighthood. In 1948 he left Liverpool to take up the principalship of Gonville College, Cambridge. James Chadwick's discovery of the neutron proved to be very important. Since it is a non-charged particle, it is very effective for the differentiation and assay of nuclear nuclei. The use of neutrons led to the discovery of nuclear fission and nuclear reactors.
From 1935 to 1948, he was a professor at the University of Liverpool, during which he made it possible to disintegrate high-molecular-weight elements by using high-velocity charged particles from particle accelerators such as cyclotrons instead of alpha particles for propulsion. In 1943, Enrico Fermi was the leader of the American team in the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, while James Chadwick was the leader of the British team that went to America. The result of this project was the atomic bomb in 1945 which forced Japan to surrender unconditionally and ended the World War. James Chadwick died in his sleep on July 24, 1974.
