Manhattan Project Veteran, Scientist, Trinity Test Eyewitness, Join Today as an Atomic History Patron Member, Listen to Rudolf Peierls's Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project. In 1944 his British atomic research group joined the Manhattan Project in the United States, and he became head of the implosion dynamics group at Los Alamos, New Mexico. From 1933 to 1935 he was at the University of Manchester, where his early work in quantum theory led to studies in nuclear physics. Frisch-Peierls Memorandum. His autobiography, Bird of Passage, was published in 1985. Corrections? After the war he reassumed his professorship at Birmingham. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rudolf-Ernst-Peierls, Independent - Obituary of Sir Rudolf Peierls, MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive - Biography of Rudolf Ernst Peierls, The New York Times - Rudolph Peierls, 88, Atomic Physicist, Dies in England. This document inspired both the British "Maud Committee" to investigate the practicability of such a bomb, and the successful American effort to build the bomb, the Manhattan Project. Updates? He spent six months at the University of Cambridge, England, in 1933. Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, German-born British physicist who laid the theoretical foundations for the creation of the first atomic bomb. Heinrich Peierls was director of the Berlin-Oberschöneweide factory of Allgemeine Elektrizitätsgesellschaft when Rudolf was born, and the following year he became a member of the board. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1945 and received its Copley Medal in 1986. He retired from Oxford in 1974 and taught in the United States for three years at the University of Washington. Rudolf Peierls's life has ended in the 50th year of the nuclear weapons age. In 1950 physicist Klaus Fuchs, whom Peierls had hired in 1941 to assist him on the atomic bomb project and who had followed Peierls to Los Alamos, was arrested as a Soviet spy. info@nuclearmuseum.org Contact Us. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). He was knighted in 1968. Sir Rudolph Peierls, the physicist whose surprising calculations at the University of Birmingham in England in 1940 helped paved the way for the atomic bomb five years later, died on … Browse our collection of oral histories with workers, families, service members, and more about their experiences in the Manhattan Project. Of Jewish ancestry, Peierls decided not to return to Germany when the Nazi Party came to power. Father: Heinrich PeierlsMother: Elizabeth WeigertWife: Eugenia Kannegisser ("Genia", m. 15-Mar-1931, three daughters, one son), University: University of Berlin University: University of Munich University: PhD, University of Leipzig (1929) University: DS, University of Manchester (1935) University: MA, Cambridge University (1937) Professor: University of Birmingham (1937-63) Professor: Oxford University (1963-74) Professor: University of Washington (1974-77), Manhattan Project (1943-45) American Academy of Arts and Sciences American Physical Society Royal Society 1945 Royal Medal 1959 Lorentz Medal 1962 Max Planck Medal 1963 Enrico Fermi Award 1980 Matteucci Medal 1982 Copley Medal 1986 Commander of the British Empire 1946 Knighthood 1968 Naturalized UK Citizen 1940, Author of books: Peierls: Rudolf Peierls talks about working with intelligence officers to find out what was going on scientifically in Germany during World War II. Prior to the Frisch-Peierls memorandum, it had been believed that the critical mass for an atomic bomb was several tons of uranium and, thus, that it was impractical to produce such a weapon. In 1929 he received his doctoral degree from the University of Leipzig, and he worked with Wolfgang Pauli on solid-state physics from 1929 to 1932 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland. AKA Rudolf Ernst Peierls. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls, expanding on the idea of critical mass, estimated that a superweapon could be built using several pounds of pure uranium-235 and that this amount of material might be obtainable from a chain of diffusion tubes. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. It was written by expatriate German physicists Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls in March 1940 while they were both working for Mark Oliphant at the University of Birmingham in Britain during World War II. Copyright © 2019 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. Despite the fact that it was his research that gave rise to the British bomb effort, Peierls was initially excluded from official proceedings because of his German origins. Birthplace: Berlin, Germany Location of death: Oxford, Oxfordshire, England Cause of death: unspecifie. Omissions? Which of these skyscrapers was formerly known as the Sears Tower? Peierls was also responsible for the recruitment of Klaus Fuchs, a Soviet spy who work in the theoretical physics division at Los Alamos. Among his books are The Laws of Nature (1955), Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1979), and More Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1991). William Penney, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, and John Cockroft. The Laws of Nature (1955)Quantum Theory of Solids (1956)Surprises in Theoretical Physics (1979)Bird of Passage (1985, memoir), Do you know something we don't? Following the signing of the Quebec Agreement in August 1943, Peierls joined the Manhattan Project as a member of the British team. In March 1940, Peierls and fellow collegue Otto Frisch co-authored the Frisch-Peierls memorandum, the first technical exposition of a practical atomic weapon. Rudolf Peierls. He became a British citizen in 1940. I can tell you. He then had a fellowship at the Royal Society Mond Laboratory in Cambridge from 1935 to 1937, when he became a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Birmingham. From 1925 to 1929 Peierls studied at universities in Berlin and Munich before working with Werner Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig in studying the Hall effect. The son of a Jewish businessman, he studied nuclear physics under the tutelage of Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli. Born: 5-Jun-1907Birthplace: Berlin, GermanyDied: 19-Sep-1995Location of death: Oxford, Oxfordshire, EnglandCause of death: unspecified, Gender: MaleReligion: JewishRace or Ethnicity: WhiteSexual orientation: StraightOccupation: Physicist, Nationality: GermanyExecutive summary: Frisch-Peierls Memorandum. All rights reserved. Rudolf Ernst Peierls was born on June 5, 1907, in Berlin, Germany. Photo courtesy Atomic Heritage Foundation. In 1940 Peierls and Otto Frisch, a colleague at Birmingham, issued a memorandum that correctly theorized that a highly explosive but compact bomb could be fashioned out of small amounts (“about 1 kg” [2 pounds]) of the rare isotope uranium-235. He worked at Birmingham until 1963, when he joined the University of Oxford. The Frisch–Peierls memorandum was the first technical exposition of a practical nuclear weapon. Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile, Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile. Erik Gregersen is a senior editor, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. During the 1980s he was active in the nuclear freeze movement, which sought to end the further production of nuclear weapons. Biography Rudolf Peierls' parents were Heinrich Peierls and Elizabeth Weigert and he was their only child.The family were ethnically Jewish but did not practice the Jewish religion. Sir Rudolf Peierls (1907-1995) was a German-born British physicist. Peierls was initially located in New York before being transferred to Los Alamos to work on the bomb. This memo ignited the race to develop the…. Tour some of the key locations of the Manhattan Project with an audio guide. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The memo also foretold the horrors that atomic weapons would bring, stating that “the bomb could probably not be used without killing large numbers of civilians, and this may make it unsuitable as a weapon for use by this country.” Notwithstanding Peierls and Frisch’s moral concerns, the memo ignited the race to develop the bomb in Britain and the United States, advancing it from an issue of academic speculation to an Allied war project of the highest priority. From 1925 to 1929 Peierls studied at universities in Berlin and Munich before working with Werner Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig in studying the Hall Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls, (born June 5, 1907, Berlin, Germany—died September 19, 1995, Oxford, England), German-born British physicist who laid the theoretical foundations for the creation of the first atomic bomb. Peierls returned to academia, with professorships at Oxford and the University of Washington until his retirement in 1977. Peierls, an outspoken opponent of nuclear weapons, wrote on nuclear disarmament for the Pugwash Conferences and was chairman of that organization from 1970 to 1974. Author, with Otto Robert Frisch, of the so-called "Frisch-Peierls Memorandum" of March 1940, proposing a "super-bomb which utilizes the energy stored in atomic nuclei as a source of energy." This three-page memorandum was the first report to…, In 1940 he and Rudolf Ernst Peierls, a colleague at the University of Birmingham, England, issued a three-page memorandum that correctly theorized that a highly explosive but compact bomb could be fashioned out of small amounts of the rare isotope uranium-235. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The memorandum included new calculations about the size and critical mass needed for an atomic bomb and the report helped ignite interest in the development of atomic weapons. Sir Rudolf Peierls (1907-1995) was a German-born British physicist. Peierls suffered some professional embarrassment because of his association with Fuchs, and his security clearance was revoked in 1957. In 1957 the US Government asked (for reasons perhaps related to the fact that his wife was Russian, and that he knew Klaus Fuchs -- who was actually a spy) that Peierls' security clearance be withdrawn, though it is unlikely that Peierls was a spy for anyone.
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