Here is some information about a few famous people who shaped the course of the Nuclear age.

Becquerel, Antoine H
Bohr, Aage Niels
Bohr, Niels Henrik D
Einstein, Albert
Enrico Fermi
Curie, Marie
Oppenheimer, J. Robert
Otto Hahn
Curie, Pierre
Planck, Max
Szilard, Leo
Truman, Harry
Winston Churchill
Joseph Stalin

Becquerel, Antoine H was a french physicist, who discovered radioactivity in Uranium. Born in Paris, Becquerel became Professor of Physics at the Museum of Natural History in 1892 and at the École Polytechnique in 1895. In 1896 he discovered the phenomenon of radioactivity in a miraculous incident. He happened to keep uranium salts on a photographic plate in a dark room and later found that it had darkened. As there was no light to affect it, he concluded that uranium emitted highly penetrating rays. Phosphorescence, spectroscopy, and the absorption of light were some of Becquerel's other research topics. In 1903 Becquerel shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with the French physicists Pierre Curie and Marie Curie for their work on radioactivity. He wrote three books on radioactivity.

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Bohr, Aage Niels was a Danish physicist and Nobel laureate, born in Copenhagen. The son of the famous physicist Niels Bohr, he assisted his father on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos, New Mexico, during World War II. He also involved himself in the study of the inner structure of the atom. His doctoral thesis dealt with a collective motion theory of the atomic nucleus that he had developed. The theory helped to explain many nuclear properties by showing that nuclear particles can vibrate and rotate so as to distort the shape of the nucleus from the expected spherical symmetry into an ellipsoid. Bohr received the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physics for this work.

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Bohr, Niels Henrik David(1885-1962) was a Danish physicist who made basic contributions to nuclear physics and the understanding of atomic structure. Bohr was born in Copenhagen. Educated at the University of Copenhagen, he earned his doctorate in 1911. Bohr's theory of atomic structure, earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. His model is an adapted version of that of Rutherford but is still different. The model proposes that an atom emits electromagnetic radiation only when an electron in the atom jumps from one quantum level to another. This model contributed enormously to future developments of theoretical atomic physics. Bohr developed a theory relating quantum numbers to large systems that follow classical laws, and made other major contributions to theoretical physics. His work helped lead to the concept that electrons exist in shells and that the electrons in the outermost shell determine an atom's chemical properties. He demonstrated that uranium-235 is the particular isotope of uranium that undergoes nuclear fission. Bohr joined in the effort to develop the first atomic bomb, Los Alamos He feared the consequences of this ominous new development. Later, he devoted his life to peaceful uses of atomic energy. He received Atoms for peace award.

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Einstein, Albert (1879-1955), was a German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate He is perhaps the best-known scientist of the 20th century. Einstein was born in Ulm on March 14, 1879. He was a slow learner. For two years Einstein worked as a tutor and substitute teacher. In 1902 he secured a position as an examiner in the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In 1905 Einstein received his doctorate from the University of Zurich for a theoretical dissertation on the dimensions of molecules, and he also published three theoretical papers of central importance to the development of 20th-century physics. In the first of these papers, on Brownian motion, he made significant predictions about the motion of particles that are randomly distributed in a fluid. These predictions were later confirmed by experiment. The second paper, on the photoelectric effect, contained a revolutionary hypothesis concerning the nature of light. Einstein not only proposed that under certain circumstances light can be considered as consisting of particles, but he also hypothesized that the energy carried by any light particle, called a photon, is proportional to the frequency of the radiation. The formula for this is E = hu, where E is the energy of the radiation, h is a universal constant known as Planck's constant, and u is the frequency of the radiation. Einstein urged the development of a theory that would be a fusion of the wave and particle models for light. Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity and General Theory of Relativity form a Lion's share to physics. Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his work on photoelectric effect. Einstein died in Princeton on April 18, 1955.

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Curie, Marie, née Maria Sklodowska (1867-1934), was a french physicist who won the nobel prize twice, best known for her work on radioactivity, with her husband Pierre. Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland. She won a gold medal at school. The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen and the discovery of the emission of novel radiations from uranium in 1896 by Antoine Becquerel, inspired Marie Curie to find more radioactive elements. In 1898 she discovered that such rays were emitted in unexpected strength by the uranium-containing mineral pitchblende, and named them "radioactive". Her observations led her to conclude that there was a previously unknown chemical element in the pitchblende. They obtained a few hundredths of a gram containing the source of the radiation. From the spectrum of this material they confirmed the existence of a new element, named polonium after Marie Curie's homeland. They found another radioactive element which they named radium. In 1903 the Curies shared with Becquerel, the Nobel Prize for Physics. She introduced into physics the terms, "disintegration" (the breakdown of an atom in radioactivity) and "transmutation" (the radioactive alteration of an atom into an atom of a different element). In 1911 she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She advocated use of radiations for medical purposes. In 1934, she died of aplastic anaemia in an Alpine sanatorium.

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Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904-1967), directed the making of the first atomic bombs. He was noted for his contributions relating to quantum theory, the theory of relativity, cosmic rays, positrons, and neutron stars. He won the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1946. He was also chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) for 5 years. In 1963 the AEC conferred on him its highest honour, the Enrico Fermi Award. Oppenheimer devoted his final years to the study of the relationship between science and society; he died in Princeton on February 18, 1967.

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Planck, Max Karl Ernst Ludwig(1858-1947), a german, was the originator of quantum theory. Planck was born in Kiel on April 23, 1858. In 1900 Planck postulated that energy is radiated in small, discrete units, which he called quanta. Developing this theory further, he discovered a universal constant of nature, which came to be known as Planck's constant. Planck's law states that the energy of each quantum is equal to the frequency of the radiation multiplied by the universal constant. Planck's discoveries,were the basis of quantum mechanics, and provided a foundation for research in such fields as atomic energy. Planck was honoured with the 1918 Nobel Prize for Physics. He died at Göttingen on October 4, 1947.

Szilard, Leo (1898-1964), was a Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist, is known for his work in the development of controlled nuclear fission. Szilard was born on February 11, 1898, in Budapest. Szilard went to England, where he began work in nuclear physics. In 1942 at the University of Chicago, Szilard, created the first nuclear chain reaction with Enrico Fermi. He contributed to the development of the first atomic bomb, but protested its use. thereafter, He was active in efforts to restrict the use of atomic energy to peaceful purposes. In 1959 he received the Atoms for Peace Award. He died on May 30, 1964, in La Jolla, California.

Truman, Harry S. (1884-1972),initiated the cold war foreign policy of containing communism. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, on May 8, 1884. With the support of the influential political leader Thomas J. Pendergast he was elected to the US Senate in 1934. During World War II he came to national prominence as chairman of a Senate investigating committee exposing waste in the war effort. President Roosevelt chose him as his running mate in 1944. He was unwilling to make allowances for what Joseph Stalin contended were the Soviet Union's post-war needs. A policy called the Truman Doctrine gave economic aid to Greece and Turkey to help those governments resist Soviet influence. In its later stages it was called "containment" and was aimed at blocking Communist expansion anywhere in the world. Under Truman, the Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) were the major manifestations of containment . His administration was also responsible for the establishment of the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, which provided advice and information to the executive on foreign policy matters, Truman chose not to seek renomination in 1952 and retired, where he resided until his death on December 26, 1972.

Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer (1874-1965),was a British politician and Prime Minister of Great Britain (1940-1945, 1951-1955), widely regarded as Britain's greatest 20th-century statesman, and celebrated for his national leadership during World War II. Churchill was born on November 30, 1874.He was educated at Harrow School . He became a newspaper correspondent in the South African Wars (Boer Wars). A daring escape from prison after he had been captured by the Boers made him a national hero and in 1900 he was elected to Parliament as Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham. Lloyd George, appointed him Minister of Munitions in 1917. Churchill is known as the "War time prime minister of Britain". He inspired the nation to fight the wars by his firey and inspiring speeches. Churchill established close ties with Roosevelt and the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, forming the "Grand Alliance". He voiced his suspicions of the Soviet danger in his famous Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, Missouri, in 1946. He died on January 24, 1965, at the age of 90. He was buried at Bladon.

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Stalin, Joseph (1879-1953)was a Soviet Communist leader, Stalin may be considered the most powerful person to live during the 20th century. Losif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, as he was originally named-he adopted the pseudonym Stalin, meaning "a man of steel", born on December 21, 1879, in Gori, now in the Republic of Georgia. Stalin began his career in the Social-Democratic party in 1899 as a propagandist among T'bilisi rail workers. Between 1902 and 1913 Stalin was arrested eight times; he was exiled seven times and escaped six times. The government contained him only once; his last exile in 1913 lasted until 1917. In the last years of tsarist Russia (1905-1917) Stalin was more of an up-and-coming follower of Lenin who raised him into the upper reaches of the party in 1912 by co-opting him into the Bolsheviks' Central Committee. Together with Lev Kamenev, Stalin dominated party decisions in the capital before Lenin arrived in April. After Lenin's death Stalin joined in a troika with Grigory Zinovyev and Kamenev to lead the country. He was instrumental in achieving a victory aginst against the Germans at Stalingrad. Stalin participated in the Allies' meetings at Tehran (1943), Yalta (1945), and Potsdam (1945), where he obtained recognition of a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, and after the war he extended Communist domination over most of the countries liberated by the Soviet armies. In January 1953 he ordered the arrest of many Moscow doctors, mostly Jews, charging them with medical assassinations. The so-called Doctors' Plot seemed to herald a return to the 1930s, but Stalin's sudden death on March 5, 1953, in Moscow forestalled another bloodbath. He is known as the ironfisted ruler of Russia.

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