Edoardo Amaldi (*)

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

He was born in Carpaneto Piacentino and son of Ugo Amaldi, professor of mathematics at the University of Padua.[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 Segre 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]

References

^ Rubbia, C. (1991). "Edoardo Amaldi. 5 September 1908-5 December 1989". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 37: 2. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1991.0001.
^ Salvini, G. (1992). "Edoardo Amaldi (5 September 1908-5 December 1989)". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 136 (3): 425–429.
^ "Edoardo Arnaldi e il rifiuto delle applicazioni militari della Fisica nucleare".
^ Rubbia, Carlo. Edoardo Amaldi : scientific statesman. ISBN 9789290830429.
^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter A". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
^ "Third ATV named after Edoardo Amaldi". ESA Bulletin (142): 59. 2010. ISSN 0376-4265.

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