1915+to+1950

 James Chadwick (October 20, 1891 – July 24, 1974)



 Chadwick discovered the neutron, which was an unknown particle in the atomic nucleus. He and Charles Ellis during World War I were able to set up a laboratory and worked on the ionization of phosphorus and also on the photo-chemical reaction of carbon monoxide and chlorine. The neutrons lack of electric charge was crucial for the advancement of the fission of uranium 235.

 He found out that neutrons did not need to overcome a coulomb barrier enabling them to penetrate and split the nuclei of any element. For his discovery he was awarded Hughes medal of the Royal Society and the Nobel prize for physics in 1932. In 1940 he was appointed to the MAUD committee which investigated the possibility of an atomic bomb.

Niels Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962)

 Bohr was a Danish physicist who in 1922 received the Nobel prize by making great contributions to the understanding of atomic structure and quantum mechanics. He was part of a team of elite scientists working on the Manhattan project, which was developing the first atomic bomb. Bohr’s son Aage was a highly decorated physicist who in 1975 won the Nobel prize.

Erwin Schrodinger (August 12,1887 – January 4, 1961)



 Schrodinger was an Austrian Theoretical physicist who achieved fame for his contribution to quantum mechanics. In 1933 he received the Nobel prize for his Schrodinger equation. In 1944 he wrote a book “What is life?” which contained the discussion negentrophy and the concept of complex molecules with the genetic code for living organisms. The Erwin Schrodinger International Institute of Mathematic Physics was made in Vienna in 1933 to commemorate his work.

 J.J. Thompson  (Dec 18, 1856 – Aug 30, 1940)



 Thompson was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate and he was credited with the discovery of the electron and isotopes. He was also credited for the invention of the Mass Spectrometer, which was a technique for determining the elemental composition of a sample or molecule. He was awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 1906 for the discovery of the electron and his work on the conduction of electricity in gases.

 Thompson in 1897 discovered through research of cathode rays that atoms where not indivisible and that the scientist where wrong, and that rays could be deflected through an electrical field composed of very light negatively charged particles. In 1905 he discovered the natural radioactivity of potassium. He also showed that hydrogen had only a single electron per atom as apposed to other theories that showed various numbers of electrons.