James
Chadwick was born on October 
20,1891,
in Cheshire, England.
He
was the son of John Joseph
Chadwick
a d Anne Mary Knowles.
He
went to Manchester High School
before
he entered Manchester
University
in 1908. In 1911, he
graduated
from the Honours School
of
Physics. The next two year of his
life
he spent with Professor
Rutherford
in a Physical Laboratory
in
Manchester. There he gained
his
Masters degree in Science in 1913.
After
WWI, Chadwick returned to England
to
acceptthe Wollaston Studentship at
Gonville
and Caius Collegein Bambridge.
In
addition, when Chadwick returned
he
started working again with Rutherford
at
his new lab in Cambridge. Chadwick
and
Rutherford accomplished
the
transmutation of other light elements by
bombardment
with alpha particles,
and
the properties and structure of
atomic
nuclei.
Chadwick
was elected Follow of Gonville
and
Caius College from
1921
to 1935. He also became
Assistant
Director of Research in the
Cavandish
Laboratory, and in 1927,
he
was elected a Follow of the
Royal
Society.
Chadwick
made an important discovery
in
the domain of nuclear science
in
1932. He proved the presents of
neutrons.
Chadwick paved the way
for
fission of uranium 235 and the
creation
of the atomic bomb. For his
enormous
discovery, he was given
the
Hughes Medal of Royal Society in
1932.
His major award was given to
him
in 1935, the Nobel Prize for
Physics.
Chadwick
stayed in Cambridge until 1935,
when
he was elected to the Lyon Jones Chair
of
Physics in the University of Liverpool. He
worked
in the United States as Head of the British
Mission
from 1943 to 1946. This position was
attached
to the Manhattan Project for the making
of
the atomic bomb. He was elected Master of
Gonville
and Caius College, after his retirement
from
active physics and his position at Liverpool in 1
948.
He retired from Mastership in 1959, and from
1957
to 1962 was a part time member of the
United
Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
In
1925, Chadwick married Aileen Stewart-Brown
of
Liverpool. Chadwick and his wife had twin
daughters,
and they lived in Denbigh, North Wales
Chadwick
enjoyed gardening and fishing.
He died in Cambridge on July 24, 1974.
Links: