Sir Rudolf Peierls

The following sections are included:

• Contents

• Foreword

• Acknowledgements

Several times when I was in Europe French, German and other scientists commented how unjust it was that he had never received the Nobel Prize for physics. Maybe it was his breadth which was not helpful. — nuclear and solid state physicists were surprised that he had been active in other fields — each had thought he had done plenty in one field. Others thought that his involvement with nuclear fission had been controversial. Whatever the verdict — he should have received it as one of the great thinkers in 20th - century physics…

A 'mountain air compressor with integrated temperature control' was the remarkable invention about which Rudolf Peierls communicated with his friend Heinz Rudolph in the earliest surviving letter of his long and extensive correspondence.²² Heinz commented that the idea, while 'nice', served better as a source of amusement than a serious invention, not least because it would not be very good value for money; nevertheless it indicates that Rudolf Peierls, from a young age was interested in science and engineering…

The 'main attraction of the summer of 1930' for Rudolf Peierls and a number of younger and more established Western and Soviet physicists was the 7^th All Union Conference at Odessa. For many Westerners it was the first exposure to the Soviet Union, and for many Soviet scientists it was a rare opportunity to encounter non-Soviet scientists…

When Rudolf and Genia settled into their married life at Zurich they knew that this could only be a temporary arrangement. It was known that Pauli liked to change his assistants frequently. His first assistant, Ralph Kronig, had stayed for two semesters, Felix Bloch only for one, and Peierls knew that it was time for him to look elsewhere for the following academic year…

When Rudolf Peierls moved to Birmingham in 1937, it was the first time he took up a position at a university which was not considered to be at the heart of theoretical physics. Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Zurich, Rome, Cambridge, and also Manchester with Rutherford's legacy and Bragg's and later Blackett's presence could be regarded as such. Birmingham could not look back on a strong history of theoretical physics research comparable with any of these places, and in fact the chair of applied mathematics was only being created at the time of Peierls' arrival. Initially he was the only theoretician among the physicists. Few people would have anticipated that within just over a decade this department of applied mathematics would become one of the foremost centres of theoretical physics teaching and research not just in England, but in Europe and arguably across the globe. This was largely due to the effort of its first professor: Rudolf Peierls…

The war had turned Rudolf and Genia Peierls into enemy aliens. Soon tribunals were set up to classify this group of residents.¹⁰⁷⁰ Being classified as 'category one' meant that the couple in practice had to endure very few restrictions to their every-day life. What concerned Rudolf Peierls more than these relatively insignificant limitations of his private life were those placed on him with regard to civil defence and to his work and research. The former were lifted when his naturalisation was approved in February 1940,¹⁰⁷¹ but the latter would continue to present problems throughout the first year of the war…

The following sections are included:

• Bibliography

• Archival Sources

• List of Correspondence

• Name Index

• Photos