Presenter
Abstract
From the discovery of the neutron (1932) to the first demonstration of controlled fission (1942) was just ten years; a period that took physics from an occupation of a small number of eccentric gentlemen and (even fewer) ladies to something of concern to, and funding decisions of, governments all over the world. The shadows of those tumultuous years are still with us, for better or worse. This talk will recount those ten years through the lives of James Chadwick (1891–1974) and Lise Meitner (1878–1968), contemporaries who played pivotal roles in the events, even though, partly because of their retiring personalities, they are often overshadowed by “larger” figures.
About the Speaker:
Gerry Lander had his primary education in South Africa and then went to Cambridge, UK, to do his PhD, which he received in 1966. He went to Argonne National Laboratory in 1967 as a post-doc and started to work on 5f systems, which he has studied ever since. He was made a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1980. From 1981 to 1986 he was the director of the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at ANL. In 1986 he joined the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), operated by the European Commission in Karlsruhe, Germany, as head of the Basic Research Group on actinides. He served as the director of ITU from 2002 to 2006. He retired in 2006 and now lives in Grenoble, France, where he is again involved in neutron and synchrotron experiments. He is a visiting professor at Bristol University, UK, where he works with thin films of uranium and compounds, a program he initiated in the early 2000s.