Nuclear Scientists
The physicists, chemists, and engineers whose curiosity - and courage - built the nuclear age.
Marie Curie
Physicist & Chemist ยท Polish-French ๐ต๐ฑ๐ซ๐ท
1867 โ 1934
The only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences. Discovered polonium and radium, coined the term "radioactivity".
Enrico Fermi
Physicist ยท Italian-American ๐ฎ๐น๐บ๐ธ
1901 โ 1954
Achieved the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in 1942 under the stands of Stagg Field, Chicago. The "architect of the nuclear age".
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Theoretical Physicist ยท American ๐บ๐ธ
1904 โ 1967
Scientific director of the Manhattan Project. Watched the Trinity test and quoted the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
Lise Meitner
Physicist ยท Austrian-Swedish ๐ฆ๐น๐ธ๐ช
1878 โ 1968
Co-discovered nuclear fission with Otto Hahn, but was denied the Nobel Prize due to being a woman. Einstein called her "the German Marie Curie".
Niels Bohr
Theoretical Physicist ยท Danish ๐ฉ๐ฐ
1885 โ 1962
Developed the Bohr model of the atom and the concept of complementarity. Nobel laureate who escaped Nazi occupation to join - then try to moderate - the Manhattan Project.
Ernest Rutherford
Physicist ยท New Zealand-British ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฌ๐ง
1871 โ 1937
The "father of nuclear physics." Discovered the atomic nucleus, split the atom for the first time, and identified alpha, beta, and gamma radiation.
Andrei Sakharov
Theoretical Physicist & Human Rights Activist ยท Soviet/Russian ๐ท๐บ
1921 โ 1989
Father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, who then became the USSR's most prominent dissident and won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning against nuclear weapons.
Hyman Rickover
Naval Admiral & Engineer ยท American ๐บ๐ธ
1900 โ 1986
The "father of the nuclear navy." Drove the development of nuclear-powered submarines and championed extraordinarily rigorous nuclear safety standards still used today.