Joseph Rotblat

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CBE FRS
Los Alamos badge photograph, 1944
Born
Józef Rotblat

(1908-11-04)4 November 1908
Warsaw, Congress Poland
Died31 August 2005(2005-08-31) (aged 96)
London, United Kingdom
NationalityPolish-British
Alma mater
Known for
SpouseTola Gryn
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
Institutions
ThesisDetermination of a number of neutrons emitted from a source (1950)
Doctoral advisorJames Chadwick
Rotblat's voice
from the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives broadcast 13 January 2012[1]

Sir Joseph Rotblat

Los Alamos Laboratory
on grounds of conscience after it became clear to him in 1944 that Germany had ceased development of an atomic bomb.

His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution toward the ratification of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. A signatory of the 1955 Russell–Einstein Manifesto, he was secretary-general of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from their founding until 1973 and shared, with the Pugwash Conferences, the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize "for efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international affairs and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms."[3]

Early life

Józef Rotblat was born on 4 November 1908 to a Polish-Jewish family in

agnostic.[8][9]

Rotblat's parents could not afford to send him to a gymnasium, so Rotblat received his secondary education in a cheder taught by a local rabbi. He then attended a technical school, where he studied electrical engineering, graduating with his diploma in 1923 in the newly established Republic of Poland. After graduating, Rotblat worked as an electrician in Warsaw, but had an ambition to become a physicist.[6] He sat the entrance examinations of the Free University of Poland in January 1929, and passed the physics one with ease, but was less successful in writing a paper about the Commission of National Education, a subject about which he knew nothing. He was then interviewed by Ludwik Wertenstein [pl], the Dean of the Science Faculty. Wertenstein had studied in Paris under Marie Curie and at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge under Ernest Rutherford. Wertenstein offered Rotblat a place.[10]

Rotblat earned a Master of Arts at the Free University in 1932. After, he entered the University of Warsaw, and became a Doctor of Physics in 1938. He held the position of Research Fellow in the Radiological Laboratory of the Scientific Society of Warsaw, of which Wertenstein was the director, and became assistant Director of the Atomic Physics Institute of the Free University of Poland in 1938.[11]

Marriage and early physics work

During this period, Rotblat married a literature student, Tola Gryn, whom he had met at a student summer camp in 1930.[4][12]

Before the outbreak of World War II, he conducted experiments that showed that in the fission process, neutrons were emitted.[13] In early 1939, he envisaged that a large number of fissions could occur and if this happened within a sufficiently short time, then considerable amounts of energy could be released. He went on to calculate that this process could occur in less than a microsecond, and as a consequence would result in an explosion.[14][15]

In 1939, through Wertenstein's connections, Rotblat was invited to study in Paris and at the University of Liverpool under James Chadwick, winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize for discovering the neutron. Chadwick was building a particle accelerator called a "cyclotron" to study fundamental nuclear reactions, and Rotblat wanted to build a similar machine in Warsaw, so he decided to join Chadwick in Liverpool. He travelled to England alone because he could not afford to support his wife there.[16]

Before long, Chadwick gave Rotblat a

Belzec concentration camp.[20] This affected him deeply for the rest of his life, and he never remarried.[21]

Manhattan Project

While still in Poland, Rotblat had realised that

atomic bomb. He first thought that he should "put the whole thing out of my mind",[22] but he continued because he thought the only way to prevent Nazi Germany from using a nuclear bomb was if Britain had one to act as a deterrent. He worked with Chadwick on Tube Alloys, the British atomic bomb project.[22]

In February 1944, Rotblat joined the

gamma rays produced by nuclear fission would interfere with the nuclear chain reaction process, and then with Robert R. Wilson's cyclotron group.[25]

Rotblat continued to have strong reservations about the use of science to develop such a devastating weapon. In 1985, he related that, at a private dinner at the Chadwicks' house at Los Alamos in March 1944, he was shocked to hear the director of the Manhattan Project,

Leslie R. Groves, Jr., say words to the effect that the real purpose in making the bomb was to subdue the Soviets. Indeed, Groves testified under oath at the 1954 hearing about J. Robert Oppenheimer's security record that "there was never, from about two weeks from the time I took charge of this project, any illusion on my part but that Russia was our enemy and that the project was conducted on that basis."[26][27] Despite Groves' testimony, in response to a suggestion by Andrew Brown that Groves' remark may have been made to test Rotblat's loyalty, Barton Bernstein, who had questioned the accuracy of Rotblat's memory, commented in a letter to Brown: "It's an interesting, responsible interpretation, and cannot be dismissed, though I'm not prepared to embrace it."[28]

By the end of 1944, it was also apparent that Germany had abandoned the development of its own bomb in 1942. Rotblat then asked to leave the project on grounds of conscience and returned to Liverpool.[23]

Chadwick learned that the chief of security held a security dossier in which Rotblat was accused of intending to return to England so that he could be flown over Poland and parachute into Soviet territory to pass on the secrets of the atomic bomb. He was also accused of visiting someone in Santa Fe and leaving them a blank cheque to finance the formation of a communist cell.[22]

Rotblat was able to show that much of the information within the dossier had been fabricated.[22] In addition, FBI records show that in 1950, Rotblat's friend in Santa Fe was tracked down in California, and she flatly denied the story; the cheque had never been cashed and had been left to pay for items not available in the UK during the war. In 1985, Rotblat recounted how a box containing "all my documents" went missing on a train ride from Washington D.C. to New York as he was leaving the country,[27] but the presence of large numbers of Rotblat's personal papers from Los Alamos now archived at the Churchill Archives Centre "is totally at odds with Rotblat's account of events".[29][30]

Nuclear fallout

Rotblat returned to Britain to become senior lecturer and acting director of research in nuclear physics at the

Warsaw Ghetto uprising embittered Ewa towards Poland, and she petitioned Rotblat to help the family emigrate to England. He therefore now accepted Chadwick's offer of British citizenship so he could help them escape from Poland.[32] They lived with him in London for some time before becoming established.[33] Halina would go on to graduate from Somerville College, Oxford, and University College London, and become an editor of the Dictionary of National Biography.[34]

Rotblat felt betrayed by the use of atomic weapons against Japan, and gave a series of public lectures in which he called for a three-year moratorium on all atomic research.

professor emeritus in 1976.[37] He received his PhD from Liverpool in 1950, having written his thesis on the "Determination of a number of neutrons emitted from a source".[38] He also worked on several official bodies connected with nuclear physics, and arranged the Atom Train, a major travelling exhibition for schools on civil nuclear energy.[27]

At St Bartholomew's, Rotblat worked on the effects of radiation on living organisms, especially on ageing and fertility. This led him to an interest in

nuclear test at Bikini Atoll by the United States had been far greater than that stated officially. Until then the official line had been that the growth in the strength of atomic bombs was not accompanied by an equivalent growth in radioactivity released. Japanese scientists who had collected data from a fishing vessel, the Lucky Dragon, which had inadvertently been exposed to fallout, disagreed with this. Rotblat was able to deduce that the bomb had three stages and showed that the fission phase at the end of the explosion increased the amount of radioactivity by forty times. His paper was taken up by the media and contributed to the public debate that resulted in the ending of atmospheric tests by the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.[39]

Peace work

Rotblat believed that scientists should always be concerned with the ethical consequences of their work.

global security threats, particularly those related to nuclear warfare. With Bertrand Russell and others, Rotblat organised the first of these in 1957 and continued to work within their framework until his death. In 1958, Rotblat joined the executive committee of the newly launched Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Despite the Iron Curtain and the Cold War, he advocated establishing links between scientists from the West and East. For this reason, the Pugwash conferences were viewed with suspicion. Initially the British government thought them little more than "Communist front gatherings".[41]

However, he persuaded

Robert Oppenheimer, Bertrand Russell and other concerned scientists to found the World Academy of Art and Science, which was proposed by them in the mid-1950s and formally constituted in 1960.[42]

He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a

Constitution for the Federation of Earth.[45]

Later life

Rotblat retired from St Bartholomew's in 1976. In 1975 and 1976, he was Montague Visiting Professor of International Relations at the

code of moral conduct, a Hippocratic Oath for scientists.[40] During his tenure as president of the Pugwash conferences, Rotblat nominated Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004. Vanunu had disclosed the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons programme and consequently spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement.[48]

Rotblat campaigned ceaselessly against nuclear weapons. In an interview shortly before the 2004 US presidential election, he expressed his belief that the Russell–Einstein Manifesto still had "great relevance today, after 50 years, particularly in connection with the election of a president in the United States",

BAFTA award-winning nuclear docudrama Threads, produced in 1984.[53]

Rotblat suffered a stroke in 2004, and his health declined. He died of

septicaemia at the Royal Free Hospital in Camden, London, on 31 August 2005.[6]

Awards and honours

Rotblat was appointed a

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1995.[55] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in the 1998 Birthday Honours for services to international understanding.[56] His certificate of election to the Royal Society read

He made important contributions to nuclear physics, both before and after working during the war on atomic energy problems at Liverpool and at Los Alamos. This included observations on the angular distribution of protons from the (d,p) reaction, which led to an important tool for determining the spin and parity of nuclear levels. He worked on the medical applications of nuclear physics, and later on the biological effects of radiation. His outstanding distinction is in his work for the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs. He was one of the founders of these conferences, and for the past 37 years has been untiring in his support and enthusiasms [sic] for the conferences, which have enabled scientists from all over the world and with opposing ideologies to talk objectively about the issues dividing them. His untiring devotion to this cause and his inspiration have been vital for the development and continuing existence of the conferences.[57]

Rotblat shared, with the

Pugwash Conferences, the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts toward nuclear disarmament.[58] His citation read: "for efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international affairs and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms."[3] Towards the end of his life, he was also elected honorary member of the International Association of Physics Students,[59] and the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation of India awarded him the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1999.[60]
He was an honorary editorial board member for ‘Journal of Environment Peace’ published from the library of University of Toronto, now from Noble International University, edited by Professor Bob Ganguly and Professor Roger Hansell.

A plaque commemorating Joseph Rotblat, unveiled in 2017 in the presence of Polish Ambassador Arkady Rzegocki, can be found outside the offices of British Pugwash, on the corner of Bury Place and Great Russell Street in London.[61]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Joseph Rotblat". Great Lives. Series 26. Episode 6. 13 January 2012. BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
  2. ^ "Manhattan Project: People > Scientists > JOSEPH ROTBLAT". www.osti.gov. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  3. ^ a b "The Nobel Peace Prize 1995". Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  4. ^ a b c Noble, Holcomb B. (2 September 2005). "Joseph Rotblat, 96, Dies; Resisted Nuclear Weapons". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  5. ^ a b Brown 2012, pp. 1–5.
  6. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/96004. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  7. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 5–6.
  8. ^ Brown 2012, p. 151.
  9. ^ Rotblat & Ikeda 2007, p. 94. "I have to admit, however, that there are really many things that I do not know. I am not a particularly religious person, and this is the reason for my agnosticism. To be an agnostic simply means that I do not know and will keep seeking the answer for eternity. This is my response to questions about religion."
  10. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 7–9.
  11. ^ a b c d "Joseph Rotblat – Biographical – Curriculum Vitae". Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  12. ^ Brown 2012, p. 13.
  13. S2CID 4129149
    .
  14. S2CID 26854983
    .
  15. ^ "Joseph Rotblat BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs Castaway 8 November 1998". BBC. Archived from the original on 28 May 2011.
  16. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 12–14.
  17. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 23–24.
  18. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 25–27.
  19. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 32–33.
  20. ^ Brown 2012, p. 65.
  21. ^ Underwood, Martin (2011). "Liverpool University (1939–43)". Joseph Rotblat: The bomb, peace, and his archive. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  22. ^ a b c d e f Abrams, Irwin. "The 1995 Nobel Peace Prize For Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference on Science And World Affairs". Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2007.
  23. ^
    S2CID 29764779
    .
  24. ^ "Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat". The Daily Telegraph. 2 September 2005. Archived from the original on 3 December 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  25. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 47–49.
  26. ^ United States Atomic Energy Commission and J. Robert Oppenheimer (1971). In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. p. 173.
  27. ^
    doi:10.1080/00963402.1985.11455991. Archived
    from the original on 10 January 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  28. ^ Brown 2012, p. 295.
  29. ^ Underwood, Martin (2011). "Joseph Rotblat's Archive: Some Anomalies and Difficulties" (PDF). AIP History Newsletter. 43: 5–7.
  30. S2CID 32392242
    .
  31. ^ "No. 37461". The London Gazette. 8 February 1946. p. 865.
  32. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 65–69.
  33. ^ Brown 2012, p. 97.
  34. ^ Sand, Katherine (13 August 2009). "Obituary – Halina Sand". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  35. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.80.1095
    .
  36. ^ "Queen Mary, University of London Notable Alumni and Staff". Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2007.
  37. ^ "Obituary – Sir Joseph Rotblat". The Guardian. 2 September 2005. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  38. ProQuest 301122892
    .
  39. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 107–118.
  40. ^
    S2CID 4959172
    .
  41. ^ a b c d Wittner, Lawrence S. (2005). "The Political Rehabilitation of Józef Rotblat". Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  42. ^ "History". World Academy of Art and Science. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  43. ^ "Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  44. ^ "Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials". Helen Keller Archive. American Foundation for the Blind. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  45. ^ "Preparing earth constitution | Global Strategies & Solutions | The Encyclopedia of World Problems". The Encyclopedia of World Problems | Union of International Associations (UIA). Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  46. ^ "Joseph Rotblat – Biographical". Nobel Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  47. ^ "Sir Joseph Rotblat". The Scotsman. 5 September 2005. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  48. ^ Brown 2012, pp. 267–268.
  49. ^ "Interview". TheCommunity.com. 2004. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
  50. MEDACT. Archived from the original
    on 3 November 2005.
  51. ^ "Nobel Prize lecture". Archived from the original on 25 April 2006. Retrieved 19 May 2006.
  52. doi:10.1080/13623699608409284
    .
  53. ^ "Joseph Rotblat on IMDb.com". IMDb. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
  54. ^ "No. 43529". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1965. p. 11.
  55. S2CID 74731514
    .
  56. ^ "No. 55155". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 1998. p. 3.
  57. ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue Rotblat". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013.
  58. ^ "Joseph Rotblat – Biographical – Facts". Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  59. ^ "List of IAPS Members". International Association of Physics Students. Archived from the original on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  60. ^ "Prof. Sir Joseph Rotblat – 1999 – Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Outside India". Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation. Archived from the original on 24 November 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  61. ^ "Sir Joseph Rotblat honoured by Polish Heritage Society plaque". British Pugwash. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.

References

External links
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