(briefing courtesy of North Anna Nuclear Power Station) Famous People in the Field of Nuclear Science

Marie Curie ( )

zPolish physicist, in 1898, named the emissions (alpha & beta) from uranium radioactivity zDiscovered the chemical elements radium and polonium zworked with cloud chambers and magnetic fields to bend radiation.

Marie Curie ( ) zShared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with her husband (Pierre) and Becquerel zFirst Woman to receive Nobel Prize z In 1911 she received an unprecedented second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for her work on radium and radium compounds.

Ernest Rutherford ( )

zIn 1911, Rutherford established the nuclear model of the atom. z He theorized that atoms are constructed much like the solar system. zThat is, a heavy part, called the nucleus, forms the center. zParticles of negative electricity, called electrons, form the outer part, most of which consists of empty space.

Ernest Rutherford ( )

"It was as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."

Ernest Rutherford ( )

Albert Einstein ( )

z1905, produced the theory of relativity (E=mc 2 ) zThis resulted in the shocking conclusion that time depends on the observer. zWhen moving at high speeds yEffective mass increases yTime slows yLength shrinks zonly the speed of light remains the same.

Albert Einstein ( ) zExperimenters have carried extremely accurate atomic clocks on high-speed jets on around-the-world journeys. And when they compared these clocks to the extremely accurate clocks they left at home, the traveling clock had indeed gone slower and lost time. But by very little.

Albert Einstein ( ) zreceived the 1921 Nobel Prize for work in mathematical physics & stating the law of the Photoelectric Effect yEinstein proposed that under certain circumstances light can be considered as consisting of particles yAlso hypothesized that the energy carried by any light particle, called a photon, is proportional to the frequency of the radiation

Ernest Lawrence ( )

zan American physicist worked with particle accelerators zA machine that accelerates atomic particles between poles of an electromagnet and directs them into material zThese accelerators have produced many of the elements beyond uranium.

Ernest Lawrence ( ) zAlso, these machines have greatly enhanced the capacity to produce radioactive substances. zReceived the 1939 Nobel Prize for creating the Cyclotron accelerator

Cyclotron Accelerator

Enrico Fermi ( )

zAn Italian-born American physicist began bombarding elements with neutrons in 1934 zIn 1938, He came to America to escape the Fascist regime zCreated theory of beta decay zTheory on the origin of cosmic rays

Enrico Fermi ( ) zdesigned the first atomic pile and produced the first nuclear chain reaction on Dec. 2, 1942 (birth of the reactor) zReactor under the football stands of the University of Chicago

First Atomic Pile

Glenn Seaborg ( )

Glenn Seaborg zCo-discovered Plutonium and 9 other elements zElement Seaborgium named after him yOnly living person to have element named after him zIdentified more than 100 isotopes zFigured out how transuranium elements fit in the periodic table zIdentified medical isotopes - saved his mother’s life with discovery of Iodine-131

THE END Famous People Session for Nuclear Science Merit Badge