Accomplishments of Dr. Segrè i

The Life, Times and Accomplishments of
Dr. Emilio Segrè

Zachary Gaston
English 1010-02
Dr. Bray
November 24, 2008

Accomplishments of Dr. Segrè 1 Emilio Segrè was born in Tivoli, Italy on February 1st, 1905. His parents were Giuseppe Segrè, the manufacturer, and Amelia Treves, his mother. His father ran a papermaking and hydroelectric plant and his uncles were scholars, lawyers, and engineers that were well respected in Italy’s intelligence community. Emilio was born into a prosperous Jewish family making him have a happy, pampered, childhood. Being the youngest of the three brothers he always admired Angelo Marco and Marco Claudio. When he was not attending elementary school, he would always spend his time playing in the famous gardens of Villa d’ Este or as Gale (2005) said, “Reading La Scienza per Tutti, which was a popular science magazine called Science for Everybody” (Document 3). As Gale (2005) said, “In his first years of high school, Segrè lacked any interest in the studies of law or in history and most of it was a waste of time” (Document 3). Specialized subjects, including basic engineering, were also taught and this would become the start of his primary occupation. Professor Monti was one of his favorite teachers during his adolescent days in school. In physics he always made him concentrate on the force equation F = ma until he really understood its meaning. I feel that Professor Monti understood that one should teach few ideas thoroughly. Emilio graduated from the Liceo Mamiani in Rome in 1922 at age 17 with a specialization in engineering. Private tutoring and instruction from his cousins led to early mastery of German, English, and many other languages. At first, Emilio entered the University of Rome La Sapienza beginning with a two-year general course for scientists and engineers and then entering the School of Engineering. He soon switched to the Physics Institute

Accomplishments of Dr. Segrè 2 through by persuasion of an Italian scientist named Enrico Fermi, and he received his doctorate in 1928 with a thesis entitled "Anomalous Dispersion and Magnetic Rotation." As stated by Gale and Jackson (2005), “With the combined efforts of Franco Rasetti and Fermi, and the paternal oversight of O. M. Corbino, director of the institute, Segrè developed laboratory skills and gained much theoretical knowledge before getting his doctorate after only one year as a physics student” (Document 3). With this, Emilio became the first student to be under the sponsorship of Professor Enrico Fermi. In 1928-29, Segrè did his compulsory, military service, spent a six-month hiatus back at the Physics Institute, and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the antiaircraft artillery stationed near Rome. In early 1930 he was discharged into the reserve. He later in that year earned the title of being part of the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship as he worked with Professor Otto Stern at Hamburg, Germany, and Professor Pieter Zeeman at Amsterdam, Holland. In 1932, Emilio returned to Italy and was appointed Assistant Professor under Professor Corbino at the University of Rome. In 1936 he was appointed as the Director of the Physics Laboratory at the University of Palermo in Sicily. During this time, Emilio fell in love with a German woman named Elfriede Spiro. Things were looking up for him as a lot of good and exciting opportunities came his way. Emilio and Elfriede married in February and in the spring of 1937 they had their first son, Claudio. Even though his life and his family were having the best time of their lives, an unexpected blow would shake the Segrè family.

Accomplishments of Dr. Segrè 3 While Segrè was visiting California in 1938, Benito Mussolini's fascist government passed anti-Semitic laws barring Jews from any type of university position. Benito Mussolini was in alliance with Adolf Hitler and both were trying to exterminate Jews out of their countries. As a Jew, Segrè was now rendered an indefinite émigré meaning he was fired from the University of Palermo for being a Jew. Luckily though, Emilio was offered a job as a research assistant at the Berkeley Radiation Lab in California ran by Dr. Ernest Lawrence. One of his major accomplishments he did at the Radiation Lab was when he was sent a molybdenum strip from a cyclotron deflector. Jonge and Pauwels (1996) stated that “A cyclotron deflector is a circular particle accelerator in which charged particles are confined by a vertical magnetic field and they are accelerated by an alternating high-frequency applied by voltage. Cyclotron deflectors are used to study the way particles interact” (p. 4). While examining the molybdenum strip he discovered that the strip was emitting abnormal forms of radioactivity. After an amount of assiduous chemical and theoretical analysis, Segrè and Lawrence was able to prove that some of the radiation was being produced by a previously unknown element. This element is now known as technetium, and was the first artificially synthesized chemical element that did not occur in nature. Another element and an isotope were also discovered while Dr. Segrè was at the University of California as well. It was discovered by Dr. Kennedy, Dr. Seaborg, Dr. Wahl, and Dr. Segrè. The element is called astatine and the isotope is called plutonium-239. The plutonium was used very quickly when Dr. Segrè was asked to join the Manhattan Project in 1944. Gale (2005) exclaimed, “Under his colleague Oppenhiemer, Segrè and a team of physicist moved to a scientific Accomplishments of Dr. Segrè 4

laboratory in which was used to make the atomic bomb that dropped on Nagasaki” (Document 3). High Energy Physics is a branch of physics where subatomic particles and their interactions are studied. In 1955 together with Dr. Chamberlain Dr. Segrè discovered the antiproton. Gale (1986) stated that, “An antiproton is an unstable negatively charged proton or the antiparticle of a proton. It is basically a subatomic particle identical to another subatomic particle in mass but opposite to it in electric and magnetic properties that when brought together with its counterpart produces mutual annihilation” (Document 6) The study of anti nucleons was his major subject of research because of the discovery of the antiproton. Professor Segrè has taught in temporary appointments at the University of Columbia, the University of New York, the University of Illinois, the University of Rio de Janeiro and in several other institutions. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a member of the Academy of Sciences at Heidelberg, a member of the Academia Nazionale dei Lincei of Italy, and of other learned societies. He has received the Hofmann Medal of the German Chemical Society and the Cannizzaro Medal of the Italian Academia dei Lincei. He is an Honorary Professor of San Marcos University in Peru and has an honorary doctor's degree of the University of Palermo. Accomplishments of Dr. Segrè 5 Emilio Segrè was a complicated man because he always set his standards too high and he would expect other young scientists to measure up to his principles. He appeared proud, unorthodox, and somewhat intimidating, but underneath he was welcoming and generous with his advice in his support of younger physicists. Segrè died of a heart attack on April 22, 1989 in Lafayette, California. Since Professor Emilio took a lot of pictures of famous physicist and a lot of the major events he lived through, The American Institute of Physics named its photographic archive of physics history in his honor. Professor Segrè was basically one of the most brilliant professors to have ever walked the earth and because of him, we can use new elements to form atomic bombs and we can learn more about the ways of the anti proton. We are lucky to have people that contribute their lives to education, and I hope one day I will become one of them.

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References
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Gale, T. (2005). Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement. Volume 25 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=contains&locID=ll n_xavieru&srchtp=name&ca=1&AI=U13720904&NA=emilio+segre&ste=4&tbst=prp
Gale, T. (1986). Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement. Volume 2 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=contains&locID=ll n_xavieru&srchtp=name&ca=1&AI=U13720904&NA=emilio+segre&ste=4&tbst=prp
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Pauewls, E. and Jonge, F. (1996) Technetium, the missing element Volume 23. Retrieved from Springer Database.

Wizemann, H. and Niemax, K. (1998). Isotope Selective Analysis by diode laser atomic absorption spectrometry. Volume 129. Retrieved from Springer Database.