Obituary: Prof Sir Joseph Rotblat

Sir Joseph Rotblat, the atomic scientist who fought for peace

Sir Joseph Rotblat, who has died at the age of 96, was one of the scientists recruited to build the atomic bombs which ended World War II.

He then spent the rest of his life campaigning against nuclear weapons - work which brought him the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 86.

His involvement in inventing the atomic bomb was, he said, because he was afraid Hitler might use it first.

Joseph Rotblat was born in Poland, and was marooned in Britain in 1939 when his homeland was invaded by the Nazis.

He'd been working as an atomic scientist in Warsaw, and continued his career at Liverpool University.

He was baffled initially when he discovered that the English he'd learned from PG Wodehouse books bore little resemblance to the local dialect.

His wife persuaded him to persevere. She was about to join him when she disappeared at the hands of the Nazis along with several of his physicist colleagues.

In 1944 Joseph Rotblat was recruited to join the team of scientists developing the atomic bomb at Los Alamos in New Mexico - the Manhattan Project.

When Germany surrendered, he demanded to leave because Japan did not have a nuclear capability, and he saw no moral justification for continuing the work.

The Hiroshima bomb appalled Rotblat

Professor Rotblat returned to Liverpool University, but began to crusade for the abolition of nuclear weapons, which was to dominate the rest of his life.

In 1957 he joined Bertrand Russell and eight other eminent scientists to launch the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, a London-based anti-nuclear group which also aimed at facilitating contacts across the Iron Curtain.

Their campaign was met with suspicion in some quarters - it was accused of being a Communist front - and Rotblat was banned from the United States until 1964.

But Pugwash gradually received world-wide recognition, and was credited with persuading Mikhail Gorbachev to halt the nuclear arms race and the United States to abandon the Star Wars space weapons programme.

'Realistic goals'

As President, Professor Rotblat received many honours, including the Albert Einstein Peace Prize in 1992 before accepting the ultimate honour of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

The citation said that the Pugwash Conference had worked behind the scenes to get scientists to "take responsibility for their inventions".

In his Nobel lecture, he called the group's goals realistic. "What we are advocating in Pugwash, a war-free world, will be seen by many as a Utopian dream. It is not Utopian," he said.

Joseph Rotblat helps set up the Pugwash Conference in 1957

"There already exist in the world large regions, for example, the European Union, within which war is inconceivable. What is needed is to extend these to cover the world's major powers."

Among the other candidates for the Prize was John Major, for his work in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

On the day after he had been chosen, Professor Rotblat said: "I think Mr. Major should make a personal statement that Britain will never conduct another nuclear test, and that the only purpose of Britain's nuclear arsenal is to deter a nuclear attack."

The scientist was still active in the months before his death and wrote an open letter to US President George Bush calling on him to show "courage" in implementing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Sir Joseph Rotblat also performed another role as a professor at Bart's Hospital in London, using his considerable knowledge of radiation to help find a cure for cancer.

Throughout his life, he believed scientists had a moral responsibility to save lives and not destroy them.