James Cronin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
James Cronin
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Cronin at the 2010 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting
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James Watson Cronin
September 29, 1931 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
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| Died | August 25, 2016 (aged 84) Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Southern Methodist University University of Chicago |
| Known for | Nuclear physics |
| Awards | E. O. Lawrence Award (1976) Nobel Prize in Physics (1980) John Price Wetherill Medal National Medal of Science |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Chicago |
James Watson Cronin (born September 29, 1931 – died August 25, 2016) was an American scientist who studied tiny particles. He was a particle physicist.
He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980 with his friend and fellow researcher Val Logsdon Fitch. They won for an amazing discovery they made in 1964. They found that some reactions of tiny subatomic particles do not follow basic rules of symmetry.
Specifically, they looked at how kaon particles decay. They proved that if you run a reaction backward, it doesn't always go back the way it came. This showed that the way subatomic particles interact is not always the same if time is reversed. This discovery is called CP violation.
Cronin also received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award in 1976. In 1999, he was given the National Medal of Science. He was a professor at the University of Chicago and helped with the Pierre Auger Observatory project.
Early Life and School
James Cronin was born on September 29, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. His father was studying classical languages at the University of Chicago. The family later moved to Alabama and then to Dallas, Texas in 1939. His father became a professor there.
After high school, James stayed in Dallas. He earned a degree in physics and mathematics from Southern Methodist University in 1951. For his advanced studies, Cronin went back to the University of Chicago. He learned from famous scientists like Enrico Fermi and Maria Goeppert Mayer. He completed his main research project on experimental nuclear physics in 1955.
Discoveries and Career
After finishing his studies in 1955, Cronin joined a research group at Brookhaven National Laboratory. They used a new machine called the Cosmotron particle accelerator. Here, he began studying how hyperon particles decay. During this time, he met Val Logsdon Fitch.
Fitch invited Cronin to Princeton University in 1958. Cronin and Fitch studied how neutral K mesons decay. In 1964, they made their big discovery: CP violation. This meant that certain particle reactions don't behave the same way if you reverse them in time. This important finding earned them the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics.
After this discovery, Cronin spent a year in France. He then returned to Princeton to continue his research on K mesons. In 1971, he moved back to the University of Chicago. This was exciting because a new, powerful particle accelerator was being built nearby at Fermilab.
At Chicago, he did many experiments on how particles are produced at high speeds. Later, he studied cosmic rays, which are high-energy particles from space. In 1998, he started working on the Pierre Auger Observatory project. This project studies ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.
Cronin was one of many Nobel Prize winners who signed a letter in 2008. They asked President George W. Bush to provide more funding for science research. They wanted to support important scientific work in the United States.
Personal Life
While in graduate school, James Cronin met Annette Martin. They got married in 1954. Annette was in charge of special events at the University of Chicago. They had three children: two daughters, Cathryn (born 1955) and Emily (born 1959), and a son, Daniel (born 1971). Annette passed away in 2005 at age 71.
In 2006, James married Carol Champlin. Sadly, his daughter Cathryn died in 2011 at age 54. James Cronin passed away on August 25, 2016, when he was 84 years old.
See also
In Spanish: James Cronin para niños
