Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908 – 5 December 1989) was an Italian

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. He coined the term "

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is a fermion (an elementary particle with spin of ) that interacts only via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass ...

" in conversations with

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" an ...

distinguishing it from the heavier "

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the atomic nucleus, nuclei of atoms. Since protons and ...

". He has been described as "one of the leading nuclear physicists of the twentieth century." He was involved in the anti-nuclear peace movement.

Life and career

Amaldi was born in

Carpaneto Piacentino Carpaneto Piacentino ( Piacentino: ) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Piacenza in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, located about northwest of Bologna and about southeast of Piacenza. Sights include the Badagnano Cast ...

, the son of Ugo Amaldi, professor of mathematics at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...

, and Luisa Basini. Amaldi graduated under the supervision of

and was his main collaborator until 1938, when Fermi left Italy for the United States. In 1939, Amaldi was drafted into the

Royal Italian Army The Royal Italian Army ( it, Regio Esercito, , Royal Army) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manf ...

and returned to physics in 1941. Ragazzi di via Panisperna

After

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Amaldi held the chair of "General Physics" at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

, rebuilt the post-Fermi school of physics, and was the co-founder of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics and of ESRO. He was the general secretary of

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gen ...

at its early stages when operations were still provisional, before September's 1954 official foundation. He pioneered in Europe the search for gravitational waves. His main scientific results were on slow neutrons in the Fermi group, and the evidence for antiproton annihilations with emulsion techniques, somewhat contemporary to its production in accelerators by

Emilio Segrè Emilio Gino Segrè (1 February 1905 – 22 April 1989) was an Italian-American physicist and Nobel laureate, who discovered the elements technetium and astatine, and the antiproton, a subatomic antiparticle, for which he was awarded the Nobe ...

and collaborators. Amaldi co-authored about 200 scientific publications ranging from atomic spectroscopy and nuclear physics to elementary particle physics and experimental gravitation, as well as textbooks for secondary schools and universities. He also wrote historical-scientific books; for example, a biography of his friend

Ettore Majorana Ettore Majorana (,, uploaded 19 April 2013, retrieved 14 December 2019 ; born on 5 August 1906 – possibly dying after 1959) was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses. On 25 March 1938, he disappeared under mysteri ...

who mysteriously disappeared. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...

in 1958, an International Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1961, and both the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

and the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 1962. In 1963 he became foreign member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

. On 25 April 1968, he was elected as a Foreign Member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. Amaldi died unexpectedly on 5 December 1989, still in full activity, while he was president of the

Accademia dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the " Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in R ...

, of which he had been a member since 1948. The third

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV design was launched to orbit fiv ...

of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

bore his name.

References

External links

Oral History interview transcript with Edoardo Amaldi on 8 April 1963, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives

Oral History interview transcript with Edoardo Amaldi on 9 April 1969, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives

Oral History interview transcript with Edoardo Amaldi on 10 April 1969, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives

Annotated bibliography for Edoardo Amaldi from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Amaldi's profile on INSPIRE-HEP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amaldi, Edoardo 1908 births 1989 deaths People associated with CERN Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Italian relativity theorists Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from the Province of Piacenza Sapienza University of Rome faculty Members of the Lincean Academy Presidents of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society

Life and career

See also

References

External links