Rudolf Peierls was a German-born British physicist who, working as a refugee scientist in England in 1940 with fellow emigre physicist Otto Frisch, co-authored the short but historically decisive Frisch-Peierls memorandum. The memorandum calculated, contrary to the general assumption at the time, that a nuclear weapon could actually be built from a relatively small, practically obtainable quantity of purified uranium-235, and that such a bomb could be assembled quickly enough to be used within the current war rather than remaining a distant theoretical possibility. This conclusion alarmed the British scientific and military establishment enough to prompt the formation of the Maud Committee to investigate the question further, and the Maud Committee's own findings in turn helped persuade the United States government to launch the large-scale Manhattan Project. Peierls himself went on to play a major role in Britain's own wartime nuclear effort, known as Tube Alloys, and later worked directly on the Manhattan Project in the United States as part of the British mission to Los Alamos. After the war Peierls held a long academic career in Britain, principally at the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford, continuing influential work in theoretical and nuclear physics.
Facts
Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account FieldSourced to the subject's own account Death PlaceSourced to the subject's own accountChurchill Hospital, Oxfordshire 1 NationalitySourced to the subject's own account Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountFrisch-Peierls memorandum on the feasibility of an atomic bomb 1 BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own accountOberschoeneweide, Berlin, Germany 1 Connections
Associated With
Otto Frisch, Scientists Co-authored the 1940 Frisch-Peierls memorandum, the first technical outline of an atomic bomb design.
Works In
Sources
1. Rudolf Peierls (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead sentence (birth and death dates)
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; German: [ˈpaɪɐls]; 5 June 1907-19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allied nuclear bomb programme.
lead sentence (birth year)
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; German: [ˈpaɪɐls]; 5 June 1907-19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allied nuclear bomb programme.
Early life section (birthplace)
Rudolf Ernst Peierls was born in the Berlin suburb of Oberschoeneweide, the youngest of three children of Heinrich Peierls an electrical engineer, from a family of Jewish merchants.
Later life section (death date)
During 1995, his health continued to decline, and he required regular kidney dialysis sessions at Churchill Hospital, where he died on 19 September 1995.
Later life section (death year)
During 1995, his health continued to decline, and he required regular kidney dialysis sessions at Churchill Hospital, where he died on 19 September 1995.
Later life section (death place)
In 1994, he suffered a combination of health problems, including heart, kidney and lung problems, and relocated himself to Oakenholt, a nursing home near Farmoor, Oxfordshire.
lead sentence (nationality)
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; German: [ˈpaɪɐls]; 5 June 1907-19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allied nuclear bomb programme.
lead sentence (field)
Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (; German: [ˈpaɪɐls]; 5 June 1907-19 September 1995) was a German-born British physicist who played a major role in Tube Alloys, Britain's nuclear weapon programme, as well as the subsequent Manhattan Project, the combined Allied nuclear bomb programme.
Research summary (notable work)
In March 1940, Peierls co-authored the Frisch-Peierls memorandum with Otto Robert Frisch. This short paper was the first to set out that one could construct an atomic bomb from a small amount of fissile uranium-235.
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