Edoardo Amaldi

Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908 – 5 December 1989) was an Italian physicist.

Life and career

Amaldi was born in Carpaneto Piacentino, son of Ugo Amaldi, professor of mathematics at the University of Padua, and Luisa Basini.^[1][2][3][4]

Amaldi graduated under the supervision of Enrico Fermi and was his main collaborator until 1938, when Fermi left Italy for the United States. In 1939, Amaldi was drafted into the Royal Italian Army and returned to physics in 1941.

After WWII, Amaldi held the chair of "General Physics" at the Sapienza University of Rome, rebuilt the post-Fermi school of physics, and was the co-founder of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics, and of CERN and ESRO. He pioneered in Europe the search for gravitational waves.

His main scientific results have been the research on slow neutrons in the Fermi group, and the evidence for antiproton annihilations with emulsion techniques, somewhat contemporary to its production in accelerators by Emilio Segrè and collaborators. Amaldi co-authored about 200 scientific publications ranging from atomic spectroscopy and nuclear physics to elementary particle physics and experimental gravitation, as well as textbooks for secondary schools and universities. He also wrote historical-scientific books, like for example, the biography of his missing friend Ettore Majorana. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1962.^[5]

Amaldi died unexpectedly on 5 December 1989, still in full activity, while he was president of the Accademia dei Lincei, of which he had been a member since 1948.

The third Automated Transfer Vehicle of the European Space Agency bears his name.^[6]

See also

• Via Panisperna boys
• I ragazzi di via Panisperna (movie)

References

External links

Book: Via Panisperna Boys

• Oral History interview transcript with Edoardo Amaldi 8 April 1963, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
• Oral History interview transcript with Edoardo Amaldi 9, 10 April 1969, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
• Oral History interview transcript with Edoardo Amaldi 10 December 1982, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
• Annotated bibliography for Edoardo Amaldi from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 45512650 LCCN: n50024129 ISNI: 0000 0001 1875 5610 GND: 121853047 BNF: cb11888611k

Persondata
Name	Amaldi, Edoardo
Alternative names
Short description	Physicist
Date of birth	5 September 1908
Place of birth	Carpaneto Piacentino
Date of death	5 December 1989
Place of death	Rome