Joseph Rotblat

Biographical

Curriculum Vitae

Born Warsaw, 4 November 1908 (British citizen since 1946)
Educated at the Free University of Poland and the University of Warsaw, Poland
 
Academic Degrees
MA, Free University of Poland, 1932
Doctor of Physics, University of Warsaw, 1938
PhD, University of Liverpool, 1950
DSc, University of London, 1953
 
Honorary Degrees
Hon DSc, University of Bradford, 1973
Hon. Fellow, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, 1985
Dr Honoris causa, University of Moscow, 1988
Hon DSc, University of Liverpool, 1989
 
Professional Career
1933-1939: Research Fellow of Radiological Laboratory of Scientific Society of Warsaw
1937-1939: Assistant Director of Atomic Physics Institute of Free University of Poland
1939: Oliver Lodge Fellowship, University of Liverpool
1939-1944: Work on atom bomb, University of Liverpool and in Los Alamos
1940-1949: Lecturer and afterwards Senior Lecturer in Department of Physics, Liverpool University
1945-1949: Director of Research in Nuclear Physics at Liverpool University
1948: Fellow of Institute of Physics
1950-1976: Professor of Physics in the University of London, at St.Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, now Emeritus
1950-1976 Chief Physicist at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital
   
Other activities and appointments
1945-1950 Chairman, Photographic Emulsion Panel of the UK Nuclear
Physics Committee (development of sensitive emulsions which made possible the discovery of pi-mesons)
1946-1950 Chairman, Cyclotron Panel of the UK Nuclear Physics Committee (planned and supervised building of cyclotrons for Harwell and Liverpool)
1946-1959 Co-founder of Atomic Scientists Association; served as its Executive Vice-President from 1952-1959
1947-1950 Organized the Atom Train Exhibition, the first large-scale effort to educate the public about the peaceful and military applications of nuclear energy. The exhibition toured Britain, Europe and the Middle East
1955 Signatory of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto; chaired press conference which announced it
1957-1973 Secretary-General of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs; organized numerous conferences of scientists; edited Pugwash Newsletter
1960-1972 Editor-in-Chief of Physics in Medicine and Biology
1966-1971 Co-founder and member of governing board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
1966 Co-founder of UK Panel on Gamma and Electron Irradiation
1969-1970 President, Hospital Physicists’ Association
1971-1972 President, British Institute of Radiology
1972-1975 President, International Science Forum
1972-1975 Member of the Advisory Committee on Medical Research, World Health Organization
1974-1976 Treasurer, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College
1974-1976 Vice-Dean, Faculty of Science, University of London
1975-1976 Montague Visiting Professor of International Relations, University of Edinburgh
1977 Governor of the Voluntary Hospital of St. Bartholomew in the City of London
1977-1978 Visiting Professor of Physics, University of Penang, Malaysia; set-up school of biophysics
1978-1988 Chairman of the British Pugwash Group
1984-1990 Member of the Management Group of World Health Organization; as rapporteur mainly responsible for Reports on Effects of Nuclear War on Health and Health Services
1988- President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
   
Membership of Academies of Science
Foreign Member, Polish Academy of Sciences, 1966
Honorary Foreign Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1972
Foreign Member, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 1988
Foreign Member, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, 1994
Fellow of the Royal Society, 1995
 
Honours and Awards
Commander of the British Empire (CBE), 1965
Bertrand Russell Society Award, 1983
Commander, Order of Merit (Poland), 1987
Gold Medal, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, 1988
Order of Cyril and Methodius (1st Cl.) (Bulgaria), 1988
Knight Commander’s Cross, Order of Merit (Germany), 1989
Distinguished Citizen Award, Int. Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 1989
Honorary Member, British Institute of Radiology, 1990
Albert Einstein Peace Prize, 1992
Honorary Professor, University of Blagoevgrad, 1993
Nobel Peace Laureate, 1995
 
Publications
Over 300 publications, including 20 books, in the following areas:
Nuclear Physics
Medical Physics and Radiation Biology
Radiation Hazards and the Consequences of Nuclear War
Nuclear Power and Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
Arms Control and Disarmament
The Pugwash Movement and the Social Responsibility of Scientists
From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1995, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1996

 

Selected Bibliography
By Joseph Rotblat
Rotblat, Joseph. “Leaving the Bomb Project”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 41 (August 1985): 16–19. Rotblat’s personal story.
Rotblat, Joseph, J. Steinberger and B. Udgaonkar, Nuclear-Weapon-Free World: Desirable? Feasible? Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993. A Pugwash monograph which opened a significant debate on its theme. Also published in Russian, French, Chinese, Arabic, Swedish, and Japanese.
Rotblat, Joseph ed., Nuclear Weapons: The Road to Zero. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998. Essays on the present situation and prospects for the future.
Rotblat, Joseph, Scientists in the Quest for Peace: A History of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972.
Rotblat, Joseph, ed. Scientists, the Arms Race and Disarmament. A UNESCO/Pugwash Symposium. London: Taylor & Francis, 1982. Esp. Rotblat’s article, “Movements of Scientists against the Arms Race”, pp. 115–157.
 
Other Sources
De Andreis, M. and Francesco Calogero, The Soviet Nuclear Weapon Legacy, SIPRI Research Report no. 10, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Calogero, Francesco, M. Goldberger and S.P. Kapitza, eds. Verification: Monitoring Disarmament, Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1991. Also published in Russian. Essays by top experts from U.S., Europe and Russia.
Moore, Mike. “Forty Years of Pugwash”, in Bulletin of Atomic Scientists vol. 53, 6 (November/December 1997):40–45. Looking back after the 40th annual meeting, held at Lillehammer, Norway. Illustrated.
Szasz, Ferenc Morton, British Scientists and the Manhattan Project, MacMillan 1992, Ch.5.
Wittner, Lawrence, The Struggle Against the Bomb. Vol. 2, Resisting the Bomb 1954–1970, (Stanford, California: Stanford Univ. Press, 1997): 33–37, 111–114, 292–96, 418– 419. A monumental work with well researched references to the hostile attitude of Western governments toward early Pugwash activities.

From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1991-1995, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1999

This CV was first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Sir Joseph Rotblat died on 31 August 2005.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1995

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MLA style: Joseph Rotblat – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1995/rotblat/biographical/>

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