Felix
Bloch was born into a Jewish family in
Zurich, Switzerland, on 23rd October, 1905. He studied mathematics,
engineering and physics in Zurich before moving to Germany
to study under Werner Heisenberg
at the University of Leipzig..
In
1928 Bloch published his doctoral thesis which became the basis
for the quantum theory of electrical conduction. Over the next five
years he worked with Niels Bohr and Enrico
Fermi and other leading scientists working in this field.
When
Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933 Bloch
emigrated to the United States and worked
at Stanford University where he continued his research into neutrons.
In
1943 Bloch
joined the
Manhattan
Project.
In the United States. Over the next two years he worked with Robert
Oppenheimer,
Edward Teller, Otto
Frisch,
Felix Bloch, Enrico
Fermi, David Bohm, James
Chadwick, James
Franck,
Emilio
Segre,
Niels Bohr, Eugene
Wigner, Leo Szilard and Klaus
Fuchs in developing the atom bombs
dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After
the war Bloch returned to Stanford University where he continued
his research and in 1953 he won the Nobel Prize for his work on
nuclear magnetic resonance. The following year Bloch was appointed
the first Director General of CERN in Geneva. Felix Bloch died in
1983.
