Liverpool is renowned not only for its architectural landmarks but also for the talented people who were born here or started their careers in the city. Today, we’re going to talk about the famous physicist Joseph Rotblat. Rotblat’s work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the ratification of the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty. Joseph Rotblat also worked in Liverpool for a significant period. Read more about it at liverpoolname.com.
Childhood and Education
The future physicist was born into a large Polish-Jewish family in Warsaw in 1908. His father was in the horse-breeding business, so the family lived prosperously. However, everything changed with the outbreak of the First World War. The business failed, and the Rotblat family experienced poverty.
Joseph Rotblat was unable to get a grammar school education due to the family’s financial situation, so he was taught by a local rabbi in a cheder. He later attended a technical college. After qualifying, he began working as an electrician in Warsaw, but he dreamed of studying physics. In 1932, Rotblat earned a Master of Arts degree from the Free Polish University. He subsequently enrolled at the University of Warsaw and, by 1938, had become a Doctor of Physics.
Joseph began working as a research fellow at the Radiological Laboratory of the Scientific Society of Warsaw. He later became the assistant director of the Atomic Physics Institute of the Free Polish University.
Joseph Rotblat married Tola Gryn.
The Visit to Liverpool That Changed Rotblat’s Life
In 1939, Rotblat was invited to study in Paris and also at the University of Liverpool. In Liverpool, he was to study under the Nobel laureate James Chadwick. Joseph Rotblat chose Liverpool but travelled alone, without his wife, as the young scientist could not afford to support her in England. Sometime later, after he began receiving a fellowship, he returned to Poland in August 1939 to bring Tola back with him. Unfortunately, she was unable to travel due to ill health, as she was recovering from an appendicitis operation. Joseph returned to Britain, and his wife planned to join him a few days later. However, the outbreak of the Second World War shattered their plans. Tola was trapped and could never leave Poland. Joseph Rotblat never saw his wife again. She was murdered during the Holocaust at the Belzec extermination camp.
During the Second World War, the physicist joined the Los Alamos Laboratory as part of Chadwick’s British Mission to the Manhattan Project. He investigated whether high-energy gamma rays from nuclear fission could interfere with the chain reaction process. However, Rotblat left the project on grounds of conscience and returned to Liverpool.
The physicist became a senior lecturer and acting director of research in nuclear physics at the University of Liverpool.
Devastated by the use of the atomic bomb on Japan, Rotblat delivered a series of public lectures. In them, the physicist called for a three-year moratorium on all atomic research, believing his own work should be used only for peaceful purposes.
In 1949, Rotblat became a professor of physics at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, part of the University of London. A year later, he earned his PhD from the University of Liverpool.
The scientist constantly criticised nations for their nuclear armament. For his life’s work, Joseph Rotblat was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), received the Albert Einstein Peace Prize, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), and was later knighted (KCMG) as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to international understanding.