Nobel Peace Prize Winner Joseph Rotblat Dead at 96

Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist who resigned in protest from the Manhattan Project and later a vocal opponent of nuclear weapons, had died at the age of 96.

Rotblat later founded the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs to advocate against the use of nuclear weapons. He and his organization were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

Rotblat was born in Warsaw, Poland. He survived World War II and became a British citizen in 1946.

'Joseph Rotblat was a towering figure in the search for peace in the world, who dedicated his life to trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and ultimately to rid the world of war itself,' said M.S. Swaminathan, president of the Pugwash Conferences when informed of Rotblat's death.

Rotblat was originally involved in the Manhattan Project, the top secret American program to build the first atomic bomb during World War II. He resigned when he found out that Germany was not trying to make a similar bomb.

He later advocated that scientists should take responsibility for their creations. On July 9, 1955, Rotblat signed a manifesto along with 10 other top scientists like Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Frederic Joliot-Curie and 1962 Nobel peace laureate Linus Pauling setting forth that proposition.

When Rotblat was awarded the Noble Peace Prize, his citation read in part that he and his organization received the award due to their 'desire to see all nuclear arms destroyed and, ultimately, in a vision of other solutions to international disputes than war.'

In his acceptance speech, Rotblat noted that a world free of war was not a utopian dream.

'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,' he said.

Rotblat's other honors included a knighthood in 1998, the Albert Einstein Peace Prize in 1992, the Copernicus Medal of the Polish Academy of Scientists in 1996, and the Jamnalal Bajaj Peace Award in 1999.

Rotblat was married to Tola Gryn in 1937 but left her behind when he left Poland for England in 1939 when she was too ill to travel. She was later put in a concentration camp by the Nazis and murdered in the Holocaust.

Rotblat never remarried. He is survived by two nieces, and several great-nieces and great-great nephews.

Funeral arrangements are pending.