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

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 ...

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

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, 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. Ura ...

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

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

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

neutrino A neutrino ( ; denoted by the Greek letter ) is an elementary particle that interacts via the weak interaction and gravity. The neutrino is so named because it is electrically neutral and because its rest mass is so small ('' -ino'') that i ...

, 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 was detected by Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan in 1953, a discovery for which Reines was awarded the 1995

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

.) 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 Hungarian physicists {{physicist-stub