Joseph Rotblat
Rotblat retired from St Bartholemew's in 1976. He believed that scientists have an individual moral responsibility, and just as the Hippocratic Oath provides a code of conduct for physicians, he thought that scientists should have their own code of moral conduct. During his tenure as president of the Pugwash conferences, Rotblat nominated Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004. Vanunu had disclosed the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons programme, and consequently spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement.
Rotblat campaigned ceaselessly against nuclear weapons. In an interview shortly before the 2004 U.S. presidential election, he expressed his belief that the Russell-Einstein Manifesto still had "great relevance today, after 50 years, particularly in connection with the election of a president in the United States", and above all, with respect to the potential pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons.[11][12] Central to his view of the world were the words of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto with which he concluded his acceptance lecture for the Nobel prize in 1995:[13] "Above all, remember your humanity".
Rotblat won the Albert Einstein Peace Prize in 1992 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1995. He was knighted a KCMG in 1998. He served as editor-in-chief of the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology, and was the president of several institutions and professional associations. He was also a co-founder and member of the governing board of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, as well as a member of the Advisory Committee on Medical Research of the World Health Organization.
[
Footnotes
- ^ a b Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 2 September 2005
- ^ a b c d Obituary, The Times, 2 September, 2005
- ^ Peace Pledge Union biography
- ^ a b c d e f g Irwin Abrhams [1]
- ^ a b Alan Salmon, Insight, p.15, University of Liverpool (2006)
- ^ Obituary, The Guardian, 2 September, 2005
- ^ [2]Nobel Prize Curriculum Vitae
- ^ [3]Peace pledge biography
- ^ Queen Mary, University of London Notable Alumni and Staff. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
- ^ a b c [4]The Political Rehabilitation of Joseph Rotblat, Lawrence S. Wittner, George Mason's University History News Network (2005)
- ^ Interview with TheCommunity.com (2004)
- ^ [5] New Year message 2005
- ^ Nobel Prize lecture
[
External links
- Interview about the Manhattan Project for the WGBH series, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age
- Freeview video interview with Sir Joseph Rotblat by the Vega Science Trust
- Nobel Committee information on Joseph Rotblat
- Op-Ed: The 50-Year Shadow by Joseph Rotblat, New York Times, May 17, 2005.
- Joseph Rotblat – Nobel Lecture
- Man of Peace Dies: Scientist Who Turned Back on A-bomb Project The Guardian September 2, 2005
- The papers of Joseph Rotblat are currently being processed by the NCUACS, Bath, England [6]
- Interview with Joseph Rotblat recorded in 2005 a few months before he died
|
||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rotblat, Joseph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rotblat, Józef (birth name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Polish-born British-naturalised physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4 November 1908 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Warsaw, Poland |
| DATE OF DEATH | 31 August 2005 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | London, England |
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.