Emilio Segrè
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Emilio Gino Segrè
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1959
Born: 1 February 1905, Tivoli, Italy
Died: 22 April 1989, Lafayette, CA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Prize motivation: “for their discovery of the antiproton”
Prize share: 1/2
Work
The matter around us has a kind of mirror image—antimatter. A particle and its antiparticle have an opposite electrical charge, among other things. The electron’s antiparticle positron was the first to be discovered. With high concentrations of energy, a pair of particles and antiparticles can be created, but when a particle and an antiparticle meet, both are annihilated and their mass is converted into radiation. In a 1955 experiment with a powerful particle accelerator, Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain confirmed the existence of the proton’s antiparticle, the antiproton.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
