James Chadwick was born in England in October of 1891. The son of John Joseph Chadwick and Anne Mary Knowles, James later attended Manchester High School before going forward with his higher education at Manchester and Cambridge Universities.

James Chadwick was a student of observation and he had the opportunity to observe some great works of science working under the influence of Hans Geiger at the Technical University of Berlin. Later, he worked closely with Earnest Rutherford where he continued to feed his interest in physics working side by side with other brilliant minds.

During World War I, Chadwick was interned at the Ruhleben POW Camp where he was permitted to use the stables as his laboratory. Later, it was Geiger’s Laboratory that went forward with a pursuit of his release and after several years at the POW camp, Chadwick was able to leave Ruhleben behind.

In 1932, James Chadwick made an unusual discovery. He discovered the neutron and recognized it as the nucleus of an atom that lacks electrical charge. It was that realization that would send Chadwick on an adventure and it was James Chadwick that would begin preparing the way for a creation of the atomic bomb using what he knew about the fission of uranium 235.

Chadwick’s discovery and contribution to the sciences, as well as the world, earned him a commendation of the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1932 but the real recognition came when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1935.

In 1935, James Chadwick was elected to the Lyon Jones Chair of Physics at The University of Liverpool. He later worked in the United States as head of the British Mission which was involved with the Manhattan Project. After he returned to England, James Chadwick held several advisory positions long after his 1948 retirement.

Together with co-authors C.D. Ellis and Lord Rutherford, Chadwick wrote Radiations from Radioactive Substances (1930). He also published various papers on radioactive topics of interest. James Chadwick died in 1974 leaving behind his wife, Aileen and two daughters as well as a trail of accomplishments.