Editing Emilio Segrè (section)

{{Short description|Italian-American nuclear physicist and radiochemist (1905–1989)}}
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{{Use British English|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{redirect|Segrè|Emilio's nephew who is also a physicist|Gino Segrè|other people with the surname|Segre (surname)|other uses|Segre (disambiguation){{!}}Segre}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Emilio Segrè
| image             = Segre.jpg
| caption           = Segrè in 1959
| birth_name        = Emilio Gino Segrè
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1905|02|01|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Tivoli, Lazio]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1989|04|22|1905|01|30|df=yes}}
| death_place       = [[Lafayette, California]], U.S.
| citizenship       = {{Plain list|
* Italy (1905–1944)
* United States (1944–1989)
}}
| alma_mater        = [[Sapienza University of Rome]] (''[[laurea]]'', 1928)
| known_for         = {{Plain list|
* Discovering [[technetium]] (1937)
* Discovering [[astatine]] (1940)
* Discovering the [[antiproton]] (1955)
}}
| spouses           = {{Plain list|
* {{Marriage|Elfriede Spiro|1936|1970|reason=died}}
* {{Marriage|Rosa Mines|1972}}
}}
| children          = 3
| relatives         = {{Plain list|
* [[Gino Segrè]] (nephew)
* [[Julie Segre]] (grand-niece)
* [[Kristine Yaffe]] (grand-niece)
}}
| awards            = {{Plain list|
* [[Richtmyer Memorial Award]] (1957)
* [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1959)
}}
| fields            = {{Plain list|
* [[Nuclear physics]]
* [[Radiochemistry]]
}}
| work_institutions = {{Plain list|
* Sapienza University of Rome (1932–1936, 1973–1974)
* [[University of Palermo]] <br/> (1936–1938)
* [[University of California, Berkeley]] (1938–1943, 1946–1973)
* [[Los Alamos Laboratory]] <br/> (1943–1946)
}}
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Enrico Fermi]]
| doctoral_students = {{Plain list|
* [[Herbert York]] (1949)
* [[Thomas Ypsilantis]] (1955)
}}
| signature         = Emilio G Segrè signature.svg
}}

'''Emilio Gino Segrè''' ({{IPAc-en|s|ə|ˈ|ɡ|r|eɪ}} {{respell|sə|GRAY}}; {{IPA|it|eˈmiːljo ˈdʒiːno seˈgrɛ|lang}}; 1 February 1905<!-- This is correct! Don't change it! --> – 22 April 1989)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1959/segre-facts.html |title=Emilio Segrè - Facts |website=Nobelprize.org |access-date=20 April 2018}}</ref> was an Italian-American [[nuclear physicist]] and [[radiochemist]] who discovered the elements [[technetium]] and [[astatine]], and the [[antiproton]], a [[subatomic particle|subatomic]] [[antiparticle]], for which he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] in 1959, along with [[Owen Chamberlain]].

Born in [[Tivoli, Italy|Tivoli]], near [[Rome]], Segrè studied engineering at the [[University of Rome La Sapienza]] before taking up physics in 1927. Segrè was appointed assistant professor of physics at the University of Rome in 1932 and worked there until 1936, becoming one of the [[Via Panisperna boys]]. From 1936 to 1938 he was director of the Physics Laboratory at the [[University of Palermo]]. After a visit to [[Ernest O. Lawrence]]'s [[Berkeley Radiation Laboratory]], he was sent a [[molybdenum]] strip from the laboratory's [[cyclotron]] accelerator in 1937, which was emitting anomalous forms of [[radioactivity]]. Using careful chemical and theoretical analysis, Segrè was able to prove that some of the radiation was being produced by a previously unknown element, named technetium, the first artificially synthesized [[chemical element]] that does not occur in nature.

In 1938 and while Segrè was visiting the Berkeley Radiation laboratory, [[Benito Mussolini]]'s [[fascist]] government passed [[Italian Racial Laws|antisemitic laws]] barring [[Jew]]s from university positions. As a Jew, Segrè was rendered an indefinite émigré. At the Berkeley Radiation Lab, Lawrence offered him an underpaid job as a research assistant. There, Segrè helped discover the element astatine and the isotope [[plutonium-239]], which was later used to make the [[Fat Man]] [[nuclear bomb]] dropped on [[Nagasaki]]. From 1943 to 1946 he worked at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] as a group leader for the [[Manhattan Project]]. He found in April 1944 that [[Thin Man nuclear bomb|Thin Man]], the proposed plutonium [[gun-type nuclear weapon]], would not work due to the presence of [[plutonium-240]] impurities. In 1944, he became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the United States. On his return to [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]] in 1946, he became a [[professor]] of physics and of [[history of science]], serving until 1972. Segrè and [[Owen Chamberlain]] co-headed a research group at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory that discovered the [[antiproton]], for which the two shared the 1959 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]].

Segrè was an active photographer who took many pictures documenting events and people in the history of modern science, which were donated to the [[American Institute of Physics]] after his death. The American Institute of Physics named its photographic archive of physics history in his honor.