Emilio Segrè

Emilio Gino Segrè (Italian: [eˈmiːljo seˈgrɛ]; 1 February 1905 – 22 April 1989) was an Italian-American <a href="/facts/Chemist/N09K7Bdm">chemist</a> and <a href="/facts/Physicist/cQcgvSIm">physicist</a> who discovered the elements <a href="/facts/Technetium/MGYWNI5d">technetium</a> and <a href="/facts/Astatine/AlbHPBK5">astatine</a>, and the <a href="/facts/Antiproton/dLqJkhGQ">antiproton</a>, a <a href="/facts/Subatomic_particle/tMEzcTWQ">subatomic</a> <a href="/facts/Antiparticle/7Ic43ThI">antiparticle</a>, for which he was awarded the <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics/o6w1nCbr">Nobel Prize in Physics</a> in 1959, along with <a href="/facts/Owen_Chamberlain/cGhJpu6J">Owen Chamberlain</a>.
Born in <a href="/facts/Tivoli,_Italy/D7nc0Mw1">Tivoli</a>, near <a href="/facts/Rome/bh1Ttx3T">Rome</a>, Segrè studied engineering at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Rome_La_Sapienza/VhwH9mIr">University of Rome La Sapienza</a> before taking up physics in 1927. Segrè was appointed assistant professor of physics at the University of Rome in 1932 and worked there until 1936, becoming one of the <a href="/facts/Via_Panisperna_boys/jc3mSttm">Via Panisperna boys</a>. From 1936 to 1938 he was director of the Physics Laboratory at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Palermo/LWaVknP8">University of Palermo</a>. After a visit to <a href="/facts/Ernest_O._Lawrence/SCFLr21y">Ernest O. Lawrence</a>'s <a href="/facts/Berkeley_Radiation_Laboratory/tvjPSwC9">Berkeley Radiation Laboratory</a>, he was sent a <a href="/facts/Molybdenum/RX6vp2bF">molybdenum</a> strip from the laboratory's <a href="/facts/Cyclotron/Q8APwhWm">cyclotron</a> accelerator in 1937, which was emitting anomalous forms of <a href="/facts/Radioactivity/Ya6FVjt4">radioactivity</a>. Using careful chemical and theoretical analysis, Segrè was able to prove that some of the radiation was being produced by a previously unknown element, named technetium, the first artificially synthesized <a href="/facts/Chemical_element/0jducgWD">chemical element</a> that does not occur in nature.
In 1938 and while Segrè was visiting the Berkeley Radiation laboratory, <a href="/facts/Benito_Mussolini/q8UPaBlm">Benito Mussolini</a>'s <a href="/facts/Fascist/EhQWcPsE">fascist</a> government passed <a href="/facts/Italian_Racial_Laws/BFxsEzs5">antisemitic laws</a> barring <a href="/facts/Jew/T9Y4wE6A">Jews</a> from university positions. As a Jew, Segrè was rendered an indefinite émigré. At the Berkeley Radiation Lab, Lawrence offered him an underpaid job as a research assistant. There, Segrè helped discover the element astatine and the isotope <a href="/facts/Plutonium-239/eRobTXos">plutonium-239</a>, which was later used to make the <a href="/facts/Fat_Man/2vlxvS9a">Fat Man</a> <a href="/facts/Nuclear_bomb/QVdBcMdm">nuclear bomb</a> dropped on <a href="/facts/Nagasaki/5HMR4mnp">Nagasaki</a>. From 1943 to 1946 he worked at the <a href="/facts/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory/tlrLkV7r">Los Alamos National Laboratory</a> as a group leader for the <a href="/facts/Manhattan_Project/gtg8yRK2">Manhattan Project</a>. He found in April 1944 that <a href="/facts/Thin_Man_nuclear_bomb/q87WLRvz">Thin Man</a>, the proposed plutonium <a href="/facts/Gun-type_nuclear_weapon/e5g6L4gL">gun-type nuclear weapon</a>, would not work due to the presence of <a href="/facts/Plutonium-240/kIWwdLkI">plutonium-240</a> impurities. In 1944, he became a <a href="/facts/Naturalized_citizen/xfrTf3WE">naturalized citizen</a> of the United States. On his return to <a href="/facts/University_of_California,_Berkeley/MXVEjklr">Berkeley</a> in 1946, he became a <a href="/facts/Professor/JNqot4sU">professor</a> of physics and of <a href="/facts/History_of_science/pdBLPwP0">history of science</a>, serving until 1972. Segrè and <a href="/facts/Owen_Chamberlain/cGhJpu6J">Owen Chamberlain</a> co-headed a research group at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory that discovered the <a href="/facts/Antiproton/dLqJkhGQ">antiproton</a>, for which the two shared the 1959 <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize_in_Physics/o6w1nCbr">Nobel Prize in Physics</a>.
Segrè was an active photographer who took many pictures documenting events and people in the history of modern science, which were donated to the <a href="/facts/American_Institute_of_Physics/XM6sCnm9">American Institute of Physics</a> after his death. The American Institute of Physics named its photographic archive of physics history in his honor.

Emilio Segrè open-in-new

Emilio Segrè