James Cronin

Infobox Scientist
name = James Watson Cronin

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image_width = 200px
birth_date = birth date and age|1931|09|29|df=yes
birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, USA
nationality = United States
field = Physics
work_institutions = University of Chicago
alma_mater = Southern Methodist University
University of Chicago (Ph.D.)
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Nuclear physics
influences =
influenced =
prizes = Nobel Prize in Physics
footnotes =

James Watson Cronin (born September 29, 1931) is an American nuclear physicist.

Cronin was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Cronin and co-researcher Val Logsdon Fitch were awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics for a 1964 experiment that proved that certain subatomic reactions do not adhere to fundamental symmetry principles. Specifically, they proved, by examining the decay of kaons, that a reaction run in reverse does not merely retrace the path of the original reaction, which showed that the interactions of subatomic particles are not indifferent to time. Thus the phenomenon of CP violation was discovered.

Cronin is Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and a spokesperson for the Auger project. Cronin is a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

External links

* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1980/cronin-lecture.pdf Cronin's Nobel lecture on CP Symmetry Violation]
* [http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/james_watson_cronin.html James Watson Cronin at Nobel-winners.com]
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1980/cronin-autobio.html James Cronin at nobelprize.org]
* [http://eraserall.bravehost.com/swq/cronin-autobio.html the discovery of violations of fundamental symmetry principles in the decay of neutral K-mesons.]
* [http://physics.uchicago.edu/x_astro.html#Cronin Short biography at the University of Chicago]