Sándor Szalay, Sr. (4 October 1909 – 11 October 1987) was a pioneer of Hungarian nuclear

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

.Kampis, George:Ladislav Kvasz: Michael Stöltzner ''Appraising Lakatos'' Springer 2002 p.331 He discovered a natural mechanism for

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

enrichment, which led to the discovery of several uranium deposits including an enriched deposit in the

Mecsek Mecsek (; hr, Meček; Serbian: ''Meček'' or Мечек; german: Metscheck) is a mountain range in southern Hungary. It is situated in the Baranya region, in the north of the city of Pécs. Etymology The Hungarian toponym "Mecsek" derives from ...

Mountains of Hungary. In 1955 he collaborated with Gyula Csikai to discover the

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 ...

, a weakly interactive particle. In a photograph of a cloud chamber, they found a nucleus changing direction, which they interpreted as the emission of a neutrino. (The

antineutrino 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 is ...

was detected by

Frederick Reines Frederick Reines ( ; March 16, 1918 – August 26, 1998) was an American physicist. He was awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his co-detection of the neutrino with Clyde Cowan in the neutrino experiment. He may be the only scientist i ...

and

Clyde Cowan Clyde Lorrain Cowan Jr (December 6, 1919 – May 24, 1974) was an American physicist, the co-discoverer of the neutrino along with Frederick Reines. The discovery was made in 1956 in the neutrino experiment. Frederick Reines received the Nobel P ...

in 1953, a discovery for which Reines was awarded the 1995

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

.) Szalay also founded the Institute of Nuclear Research, a branch of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He is considered the father of Hungarian nuclear physics.

References

1909 births 1987 deaths 20th-century Hungarian physicists Hungarian nuclear physicists {{physicist-stub