James Rainwater Biography

Leo James Rainwater was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1975 for his work in determining the asymmetrical shapes of certain atomic nuclei. He also worked on the Manhattan Project that led to the development of first atomic bombs. He preferred to be called by his middle name and throughout his life he was referred as such. He lost his father when he was barely a year old and thereafter his mother moved to California. At school, he displayed his talents as an extremely gifted student of science and was particularly good at mathematics, chemistry and physics. Due to his natural gifts in science, he fared well in a chemistry competition run by the California Institute of Technology and was admitted to the institute on the basis of the competition. He graduated in physics and then went on to complete his masters’ degree at Columbia University, where he worked for the rest of his life. Apart from his work on the atomic nuclei, his studies also contributed to the scientific understanding of X-rays.