Bernard Peters (born Bernhard Pietrowski in 1910 in Posen, Germany - February 2, 1993 in Copenhagen) was a nuclear physicist, with a specialty in cosmic radiation. He was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, the third highest Indian civilian award.

Life

Towards the end of the First World War, his father, pharmacology researcher and physician, sent him to the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

to a farmer so he could obtain food in exchange for manual labor. In 1942, under the direction of Robert Oppenheimer, Peters completed his doctorate in physics. During his time at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory Peters was active in the Federation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians, a labor union affiliated to the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of Labor unions in the United States, unions that organized workers in industrial unionism, industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in ...

. In J Robert Oppenheimer's 1949

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

hearing, Peters was accused of being a communist sympathizer, a "crazy person" and "quite a red" by Oppenheimer. The Rochester Times-Union broke the story a few days later, and Peters soon realized that his academic career in the US was affected. Peters could not find work in the United States, and in 1951 he left the country for

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, India where he continued to study cosmic rays for eight years. Homi J. Bhabha, after consulting Nehru, helped him relocate to India. Bernard Peters was invited by Bhabha to Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1951. Peters was then invited to Denmark by

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (, ; ; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and old quantum theory, quantum theory, for which he received the No ...

in 1958, and was until 1966/67 associated with the Niels Bohr Institute where he continued his research in

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

and cosmic radiation. In 1967 the Danish Space Research Institute was founded and Peters became the director, shaping its objectives and leading it until the end of 1978. Peters was involved in the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) and other international organizations and realized early on the importance of scientific satellites in geostationary orbit and contributed to the GEOS satellite being included in ESRO's scientific program and to the Danish Space Research Institute being strongly placed in this program. Peters died February 2, 1993, in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, Denmark.

Works

*''Deuteron disintegration by electrons. Scattering of mesotrons of spin ¹/₂,'' University of California, Berkeley, 1942 (thèse doctorale) *''Cosmic rays, solar particles, and space research'', New York : Academic Press, 1963 *''Cosmic radiation and its origin : contemporary problems'', Neuilly-sur-Seine, France : European Space Research Organisation, 1967 *''Creation of particles at cosmic-ray energies'', Genève : CERN, 1966 Cosmic rays, New York : Academic Press, 1963

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Bernard People associated with CERN Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering 1910 births 1993 deaths German nuclear physicists German emigrants to Denmark