Image of the Month

Nobel Prize medal for physics, awarded to Sir John Cockcroft in 1951. Cockcroft was awarded the Nobel Prize jointly with Ernest Walton for their work in nuclear physics which culminated in the artificial disintegration of the atom in 1932. Their experiment opened the era of large accelerators as the principal tool in nuclear and particle physics. Later, during the war Cockcroft worked on radar and the uranium bomb, then from 1946 until 1958 he served as the Director of the country's first Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. In 1959, he became the first Master of Churchill College.

Cockcroft and Walton are just two of the Nobel Laureates whose papers are held at the Archives Centre. Other winners are Max Born (Physics), Sir James Chadwick (Physics), Sir Winston Churchill (Literature), Francis Crick (Physiology or Medicine), Paul Dirac (Physics), Antony Hewish (Physics), A V Hill (Physiology or Medicine), Piotr Kapitza (Physics), César Milstein (Medicine), Lord Noel-Baker (Peace), Max Perutz (Chemistry), Sir Joseph Rotblat (Peace), Sir Martin Ryle (Physics), Sir George Thomson (Physics), Lord Todd (Chemistry) and C T R Wilson (Physics). To come right up to date, the Archives Centre has just received the papers of yet another Nobel Laureate, Robert Edwards, who was awarded the prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010 for his pioneering work in the development of in vitro fertilization.

To find out more about science at Churchill, there is an exhibition on the first 50 years of science and technology at Churchill College from 11 October-3 December 2010.