| Year |
Subject |
Fact |
| 1905 |
Physics |
Professor Henry Poynting (the man who calculated the weight of the world) wins The Royal Society Gold Medal for his research on radiation. |
| 1913 |
Science |
Madame Curie receives an honorary degree at Birmingham during which she is described as “the discoverer of radium and the greatest woman of science of all time”. |
| 1922 |
Chemistry |
Francis William Aston receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the Mass Spectrometer |
| 1937 |
Chemistry |
Sir Norman Haworth receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on carbohydrates and Vitamin C |
| 1939 |
Mathematical Physics |
Rudolf Peierls, Professor of Mathematical Physics, and Otto Frisch write a paper, which calculates that a bomb can be made with uranium 235. |
| 1941 |
Physics
|
Henry Boot receives his PhD after helping to create the first resonant cavity magnetron valve, which proved a decisive weapon against the submarine in World War II. |
| 1942 |
Engineering |
Professor Fred Garner joins the University having pioneered the use of knock-rating, which led to the star classification of petrol. |
| 1952 |
Medicine
(Paediatrics & child health) |
Professor Charlotte Anderson and her team proved that the glutens in wheat caused coeliac disease, leading to the introduction of gluten-free diets. |