Leo Szilard

Leo Szilard (1898-1964), Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist, noted for his work in the development of controlled nuclear fission.

Szilard was born on February 11, 1898, in Budapest. He was educated at the Budapest Institute of Technology and the University of Berlin, at which he received (1922) a Ph.D. degree and taught (1923-33) physics. When the National Socialist Party came to power in Germany, Szilard went to England, where he began work in nuclear physics. In 1938 he came to the United States as guest researcher at Columbia University. In the following year he was one of the scientists who persuaded Albert Einstein to write to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging exploration of the military potential of atomic energy. In 1942 at the University of Chicago, Szilard, with the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, created the first nuclear chain reaction (see Nuclear Energy). He made important contributions to the development (1945) of the first atomic bomb, but protested the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan; thereafter, he was active in efforts to restrict the use of atomic energy to peaceful purposes. In 1946 he ceased his research in nuclear physics and became professor of biophysics at the University of Chicago. In 1959 he received the Atoms for Peace Award, given by the Ford Motor Company. Szilard became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943. He died on May 30, 1964, in La Jolla, California.