- Lew Kowarski
Lew Kowarski (
10 February ,1907 -30 July ,1979 ) was anaturalized Frenchphysicist , of Russian-Polish descent. He was a lesser known, but important contributor to nuclear science.Early life
Lew Kowarski was born in
Saint Petersburg to a Jewish businessman Nicholas Kowarski and the Ukrainian singer Olga Vlassenko. Following theBolshevik Revolution , when Lew was 12 years old, his family fled west under adventurous circumstances and settled inVilnius (then in Poland). During his youth, Lew was a talented musician and considered a music career; however, his fingers grew too large for the keyboard.Education
He received a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of
Lyon and an Sc.B. and Ph.D. from the University ofParis where he carried out research onneutron counting.Research during WWII
He joined
Frédéric Joliot-Curie 's group in 1934, whereHans von Halban came in 1937. They established in 1939 the possibility of nuclear chain reactions [H. von Halban, F. Joliot and L. Kowarski, Nature 143 (1939) 470 and 680.] and nuclear energy production. While doing their research, the events ofWorld War II forced them to eventually move toEngland , bringing with them the world's entire stock of heavy water, given on loan by Norway to France so that it would not fall into German hands. They continued their research at theCavendish laboratory inCambridge for theMAUD Committee , part of the wartimeTube Alloys project.Kowarski then worked in the
Montreal Laboratory in Canada, but only after Halban had been replaced as Director byJohn Cockroft , as he did not want to work under Halban. He supervised the construction of Canada's first nuclear reactor (ZEEP ) at theChalk River Laboratories in 1945.Post war research
He came back to France to supervise the first two French reactors in 1948 and 1952. A staff member of
CERN (Geneva) since participating in its formation in 1953, he was a Decorated Officer Legion of Honor, Fellow of the American Nuclear Society, and a recipient of citation and prize from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. After his retirement in 1972, he was a University Professor at Boston University, focusing on the interaction between Science and Mankind. [ [http://www.cns-snc.ca/history/fifty_years/goldschmidt.html How it All Began in Canada - The Role of the French Scientists] , Bertrand Goldschmidt]Recently Discovered Documents
In 1940,
James Chadwick forwarded the work of two French scientists,Hans von Halban and Kowarski, who worked in Cambridge, to theRoyal Society . He asked that the papers be held, as they were not appropriate for publication during the war. In 2007, the Society discovered the documents during an audit of their archives. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6709855.stm BBC Article about discovered documents] ]References
External links
* [http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Kowarski.html Biographical note]
* [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/releases/2007/march/atom.htm?foi=rss Security file at National Archives, London (at end)]ee also
*
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
*Hans von Halban
*Montreal Laboratory
*Chalk River Laboratories
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