James Chadwick

Facts

James Chadwick

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

James Chadwick
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1935

Born: 20 October 1891, Manchester, United Kingdom

Died: 24 July 1974, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Affiliation at the time of the award: Liverpool University, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Prize motivation: "for the discovery of the neutron."

Prize share: 1/1

Work

When Herbert Becker and Walter Bothe directed alpha particles (helium nuclei) at beryllium in 1930, a strong, penetrating radiation was emitted. One hypothesis was that this could be high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In 1932, however, James Chadwick proved that it consisted of a neutral particle with about the same mass as a proton. Ernest Rutherford had earlier proposed that such a particle might exist in atomic nuclei. Its existence now proven, it was called a "neutron".

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