1986 Interviews with Joseph Rotblat Available

A three part 1986 WGBH video interview with Joseph Rotblat is available.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three (post war) (the laughter in the beginning shows a side of his personality)

Videos of Rotblat Biography Launch Now Available

British Pugwash held a launch in February of the new biography of Joseph Rotblat, written by Andrew Brown, "Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience" (described in an earlier post).  Videos of this event are now available on you tube.

Andrew Brown (author)
Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies, Bradford University
Sandra Ionno Butcher, Director, Pugwash History Project

Hodgkin was Thatcher's Mentor

Did you know that Margaret Thatcher's mentor was Dorothy Hodgkin (who became Pugwash President)?

Check out this RSC blog post:

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was a significant mentor for the young Thatcher. Hodgkin was herself a Somerville graduate who had returned to teach chemistry, specialising in the emerging field of x-ray crystallography. Thatcher spent a year in Hodgkin's laboratory, performing research on the structure of gramicidin B - the completion of which occurred about 30 years later. 

During her time at Oxford, Thatcher's interest in politics blossomed and in 1946 she became the third woman to be president of the powerful Oxford University Conservative Association. Her strong conservative views were at odds with those of her peers and her mentor (Hodgkin was a liberal and would become the president of the Pugwash Conferences, concerned with reducing the danger of armed conflict and seeking cooperative solutions for global problems). But despite these differences, Hodgkin and Thatcher kept in touch over the years and when Thatcher later became prime minister, she is reported to have installed Hodgkin's portrait at 10 Downing Street.