Famous People in the Field of Nuclear Science

(briefing courtesy of North Anna Nuclear Power Station)

Famous People in the Field

of Nuclear Science

Marie Curie (1867-1934)


Polish physicist, in 1898, named the emissions (alpha & beta) from uranium radioactivity

Discovered the chemical elements radium and polonium

worked with cloud chambers and magnetic fields to bend radiation.


Shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with her husband (Pierre) and Becquerel

First Woman to receive Nobel Prize In 1911 she received an unprecedented second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for her work on radium and radium compounds.

Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)


In 1911, Rutherford established the nuclear model of the atom.

He theorized that atoms are constructed much like the solar system.

That is, a heavy part, called the nucleus, forms the center.

Particles of negative electricity, called electrons, form the outer part, most of which consists of empty space.


"It was as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)


1905, produced the theory of relativity (E=mc2)

This resulted in the shocking conclusion that time depends on the observer.

When moving at high speeds Effective mass increases Time slows Length shrinks

only the speed of light remains the same.


Experimenters have carried extremely accurate atomic clocks on high-speed jets on around-the-world journeys. And when they compared these clocks to the extremely accurate clocks they left at home, the traveling clock had indeed gone slower and lost time. But by very little.


received the 1921 Nobel Prize for work in mathematical physics & stating the law of the Photoelectric Effect Einstein proposed that under certain circumstances light can be considered as consisting of particles

Also hypothesized that the energy carried by any light particle, called a photon, is proportional to the frequency of the radiation

Ernest Lawrence (1901-1958)


an American physicist worked with particle accelerators

A machine that accelerates atomic particles between poles of an electromagnet and directs them into material

These accelerators have produced many of the elements beyond uranium.


Also, these machines have greatly enhanced the capacity to produce radioactive substances.

Received the 1939 Nobel Prize for creating the Cyclotron accelerator

Cyclotron Accelerator

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)


An Italian-born American physicist began bombarding elements with neutrons in 1934

In 1938, He came to America to escape the Fascist regime

Created theory of beta decayTheory on the origin of cosmic rays


designed the first atomic pile and produced the first nuclear chain reaction on Dec. 2, 1942 (birth of the reactor)

Reactor under the football stands of the University of Chicago

First Atomic Pile

Glenn Seaborg (1912-1999)

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Glenn Seaborg

Co-discovered Plutonium and 9 other elements

Element 106 - Seaborgium named after him Only living person to have element named after him

Identified more than 100 isotopes Figured out how transuranium elements fit in the periodic table

Identified medical isotopes - saved his mother’s life with discovery of Iodine-131

THE ENDFamous People Session

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Famous People in the Field of Nuclear Science

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