13 lives in this collection worked in nuclear physics, from 1871 to today. Each has a full course on their life and the mathematics and physics they made.
Often together with: radioactivity, astrophysics, atomic physics, cosmic rays, nuclear chemistry, quantum mechanics, quantum theory, radiochemistry. All fields
Experimental physicist who explained radioactivity as atomic transformation, discovered the atomic nucleus and produced the first artificial nuclear reaction.
nuclear physics, radioactivity, atomic physics
Austrian-Swedish physicist who co-discovered protactinium with Otto Hahn and, with Otto Frisch, gave the first physical explanation of nuclear fission.
nuclear physics, radioactivity, beta and gamma spectroscopy
Experimental physicist who counted alpha particles with Rutherford, made the scattering measurements behind the nuclear atom and invented the Geiger–Müller counter.
nuclear physics, radioactivity, particle detection
Creator of the quantum model of the atom, the correspondence principle and complementarity, and founder of the Copenhagen institute at the centre of quantum mechanics.
atomic physics, quantum theory, nuclear physics
Experimental physicist who discovered the neutron, showed the beta spectrum is continuous and led the British mission to the Manhattan Project.
nuclear physics, radioactivity
American physicist whose discovery of the wavelength shift of scattered X-rays established the momentum of light quanta, who mapped the latitude effect of cosmic rays and who directed the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory.
x-ray physics, quantum physics, cosmic rays
French physicist and chemist who with Frédéric Joliot discovered artificial radioactivity, and whose 1938 work with Pavle Savić on neutron-irradiated uranium helped lead to the discovery of fission.
radioactivity, nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry
French physicist and chemist who with Irène Joliot-Curie discovered artificial radioactivity, showed that uranium fission releases neutrons, and led the first French Atomic Energy Commission.
nuclear physics, nuclear chemistry, radiochemistry
Italian-American physicist who created Fermi–Dirac statistics and the theory of beta decay, discovered the power of slow neutrons, and led the team that built the first nuclear reactor.
nuclear physics, particle physics, statistical mechanics
Creator of matrix mechanics and the uncertainty principle, who later led the theoretical work of Germany's wartime uranium project.
quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, quantum field theory
Physicist who explained alpha decay as quantum tunnelling, developed the hot Big Bang theory of element formation, posed the genetic coding problem and wrote the Mr Tompkins books.
nuclear physics, astrophysics, cosmology
Theoretical physicist who founded the Berkeley school of theory, co-authored the Born–Oppenheimer approximation and the first neutron-star and black-hole calculations, and directed the Los Alamos Laboratory.
theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, nuclear physics
Theoretical physicist who explained the nuclear reactions that power the stars, computed the Lamb shift, led the theory division at Los Alamos and became a leading voice for arms control.
nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics