History
The city of Manchester has a long tradition in physics, notable among its past residents being John Dalton, the founder of the atomic theory, and James Prescott Joule, pioneer of the science of thermodynamics. Since the founding of The University and its Department of Physics, many eminent physicists have been associated with Manchester, among them at least 10 Nobel Laureates. Here are some of our famous old boys:
- Arthur Schuster, who made many contributions to optics and astronomy
- J J Thomson, discoverer of the electron
- Hans Geiger, inventor of the Geiger counter
- Henry Moseley, who identified atomic number as the nuclear charge
- William L Bragg, pioneer of x-ray crystallography
- Ernest Rutherford, discoverer of the atomic nucleus
- Niels Bohr, responsible for the first quantum theory of the atom
- James Chadwick, discoverer of the neutron
- Patrick Blackett, co-discoverer of the positron
- George Rochester and Clifford Butler, who discovered 'strange' particles
- Sir Bernard Lovell, creator of the giant radio-telescope at Jodrell Bank
- Prof Robin Marshall is in the process of compiling The Living Archive, a database of information about past and present scientists. He has also compiled a history of particle physics at Manchester