Roberto Aureliano Salmeron (June 16, 1922 – June 17, 2020) was a Brazilian

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and experimental nuclear

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 ...

and an emeritus Research Director at the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

(CNRS). Salmeron was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

. He did his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, in

, and in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

in the

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public university, public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and r ...

(then named Universidade do Brasil), in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. From 1947 to 1950, he worked as researcher and physics instructor at the Escola Politécnica and in the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of the University of São Paulo, where he studied

cosmic radiation Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Sol ...

under Italian physicists

Gleb Wataghin Gleb Wataghin (November 3, 1899 in Birzula, Russian Empire, now Podilsk, Odesa Region, Ukraine – October 10, 1986 in Turin, Italy) was an Italian theoretical and experimental physicist and a great scientific leader who gave a great impulse to ...

and

Giuseppe Occhialini Giuseppe Paolo Stanislao "Beppo" Occhialini ForMemRS (; 5 December 1907 – 30 December 1993) was an Italian physicist who contributed to the discovery of the pion or pi-meson decay in 1947 with César Lattes and Cecil Frank Powell, the latte ...

. From 1950 to 1953, Salmeron worked at the recently created

Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas The Brazilian Center for Research in Physics (, CBPF) is a physics research center in the Urca, Rio de Janeiro, Urca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro sponsored by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), l ...

(Brazilian Center of Physical Research) in Rio. In São Paulo and Rio, Salmeron was contemporary of a brilliant generation of young Brazilian physicists, such as

César Lattes Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes (11 July 1924 – 8 March 2005), also known as César Lattes, was a Brazilian experimental physicist, one of the discoverers of the pion, a composite subatomic particle made of a quark and an antiquark. Life Latte ...

José Leite Lopes José Leite Lopes (October 28, 1918 – June 12, 2006) was a Brazilian theoretical physicist who worked in the field of quantum field theory and particle physics. Life Leite Lopes began his university studies in 1935, enrolling in industrial che ...

Oscar Sala Oscar Sala (born March 26, 1922, in Milan, Italy, d. January 2, 2010 in São Paulo, Brazil), Italian-Brazilian nuclear physicist and important scientific leader, Emeritus Professor of the Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo. Early life ...

Mário Schenberg Mário Schenberg (born Mayer Schönberg ar. ''Mário Schönberg'', ''Mario Schonberg'', ''Mário Schoenberg'' 2 July 1914 – 10 November 1990) was a Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer. Early life Schenberg was ...

, Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos and

Jayme Tiomno Jayme Tiomno (April 16, 1920 in Rio de Janeiro – January 12, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian experimental and theoretical physicist with interests in particle physics and general relativity General relativity, also known as th ...

. From 1953 onwards, Salmeron lived in Europe, first doing his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from 1953 to 1955 at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, under

Patrick Blackett Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett (18 November 1897 – 13 July 1974) was an English physicist who received the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1925, he was the first person to prove that radioactivity could cause the nuclear tr ...

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winner of Physics, and then as an associate researcher in the

European Organization for Nuclear Research European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other We ...

(CERN), in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland, from 1955 to 1963. In 1963, Salmeron returned to Brazil and accepted a post as professor of physics in the newly created

Universidade de Brasília The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

. Unfortunately, the military dictatorship repressed strongly the faculty with liberal and leftist ideas and he joined 223 other professors in protest, who resigned from the University in October 1965. In 1966 Salmeron left definitely Brazil and went to work in Europe at CERN again, where he had an important role in experiments attempting to discover the

quark–gluon plasma Quark–gluon plasma (QGP or quark soup) is an interacting localized assembly of quarks and gluons at Thermodynamic equilibrium#Local and global equilibrium, thermal (local kinetic) and (close to) chemical (abundance) equilibrium. The word ''plasm ...

. Afterwards (1967) he worked at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

in Paris, France, one of the most important schools of engineering in the world.

References

Bibliography

* R Aldrovandi, A Santoro and J M Gago (eds)
Roberto Salmeron Festschrift: a Master and a Friend
AIAFEX, Rio de Janeiro. . * Conto dos 13 Príncipes, Palaiseau 2002

External links

Profile: Physics as Amusement. Roberto Salmeron
Ciência Hoje Magazine 31 (185). PDF (In Portuguese) * 1922 births 20th-century Brazilian engineers 20th-century Brazilian physicists 21st-century Brazilian engineers 21st-century Brazilian physicists Brazilian electrical engineers Brazilian nuclear physicists Brazilian people of Spanish descent Brazilian expatriate academics 2020 deaths University of São Paulo alumni Scientists from São Paulo Federal University of Rio de Janeiro alumni French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists People associated with CERN Brazilian expatriates in the United Kingdom Brazilian expatriates in Switzerland Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research {{Brazil-scientist-stub