James Rainwater By Ben Gute

Born: 9-Dec-1917 Birthplace: Council, ID Died: 31-May-1986 Location of death: Yonkers, NY Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Occupation: Physicist Nationality: United States What he did: Determined the shapes of nuclei. He also wrote an autobiography

Education James Rainwater received a bachelors degree in physics form the California Institute of Technology in Then his doctoral degree from Columbia University in 1946.

Jobs Like many physicists he helped the Manhattan Project during world war 2. He eventually became a professor at Columbia teaching and experimenting in physics, until he retired in He also twice director of the university’s Nevis Cyclotron Laboratory.

Physicist He received the Nobel Prize in in Physics in 1975 for his contributions in determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei.

At the time, two theories were used to describe the atomic nucleus. In one, the nuclear particles were arranged in concentric shells.

In the other, the nucleus was described as similar to a liquid drop. Rainwater produced a model combining the two ideas.

The new theory suggested that the nucleus of an atom is shaped more like a football than a sphere.

Rainwater's theory was confirmed experimentally by Bohr and Mottelson, and provided a more complete description of nuclear structure.

Rainwater also contributed to the scientific understanding of X-rays and participated in Atomic Energy Commission and naval research projects.X-rays

Awards He received the Noble Piece prize in 1975 Rainwater also received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for Physics in He was named Pupin Professor of Physics in 1982.

Bibliography ames-Rainwater aspx files/Rainwater.pdf info.htm Google for search engine