Rainwater, James (1917-1986), an American physicist, did important research and theoretical work on the structure of the atomic nucleus. For this work, he shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in physics with Danish physicists Aage Niels Bohr and Ben Mottelson.
Rainwater used various techniques of spectroscopy (the observation of the radiation emitted by atoms and molecules) to reveal the structure of atoms and molecules. This work led Rainwater, Bohr, and Mottelson to develop a new theory of the structure of the nucleus. This theory suggested that the nucleus of an atom is shaped more like a football rather than a sphere.
Leo James Rainwater was born in Council, Idaho. He studied at the California Institute of Technology and at Columbia University in New York City. In 1952, he became professor of physics at Columbia.
