Leo Szilard Online

Leo Szilard, near Oxford, spring/summer 1936. Photo copyright U.C. Regents; used by permission. Contact Special Collections and Archives, U.C. San Diego, for information on obtaining Szilard images.

Welcome to the world of physicist, molecular biologist, and “scientist of conscience” Leo Szilard (1898-1964).

Szilard conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, and spent the rest of his life trying to protect the world from nuclear weapons.

Szilard’s other inventions included the linear accelerator, cyclotron, and electron microscope.

In his 1929 paper on Maxwell’s Demon, Szilard identified the unit or “bit” of information. The rise of the Information Age shows the importance of his long-unappreciated idea.

Szilard’s name can be pronounced in different ways. In Hungary, it is pronounced SEE-lahrd. English speakers usually pronounce it as ZIL-ahrd or zuh-LAHRD. His name is pronounced by several people who knew him in the videos below.

January 26, 2015. I’m pleased to announce the publication of an article that I think may be remembered as long as the story of the nuclear age is told... A Physicist’s Lost Love: Leo Szilard and Gerda Philipsborn

Biographical

Atomic Bomb

Atomic Bomb: Decision - A collection of documents on the decision to use the first atomic bombs, and Szilard’s attempts to prevent this — including his July 17, 1945 petition to President Truman. This is the most popular page on the Dannen.com website. It has received millions of visitors.

Einstein’s letter to Roosevelt, August 2, 1939 - Images of the letter, and how it came to be written.



Video

New and Notable Publications

Leo Szilard Centennial 1998

External Links

The Leo Szilard Lectureship Award, given yearly by the American Physical Society, honors “outstanding accomplishments by physicists in promoting the use of physics for the benefit of society.” It is sponsored by the A.P.S. Forum on Physics and Society.

Photos of Szilard also may be found on these pages:

This page of Einstein: Image and Impact at the AIP Center for History of Physics (Szilard with Einstein)

The Emilio Segre Visual Archives at the AIP Center for History of Physics has 26 pictures online.