On 24 September 1993, Bruno Pontecorvo, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, died in Dubna, Russia.

Famous for his ingenious insights and discoveries in the field of fundamental physics, his name is indelibly linked to the vicissitudes of the neutrino, the elusive particle that was searched for two decades before being discovered in 1957. His theory of neutrino oscillations is a milestone in the history and evolution of physical science. Even today, fundamental physics finds inspiration for new developments and discoveries from his ideas and experiments.

Born in Marina di Pisa on 23 August 1913 into a prominent Jewish family of textile industrialists from Rome, he began his engineering studies in Pisa, concluding them, on the advice of his brother Guido, in Rome at the Royal Institute of Physics. He joined Enrico Fermi‘s group, known as ’the boys from Via Panisperna', and took part in the neutron slowing experiment that would bring Fermi the Nobel Prize in 1938. He would later work in France with Mr and Mrs J oliot-Curie, Madame Curie's daughter and son-in-law, and then in the USA, Canada and the UK. In September 1950, at the end of a holiday in Italy, motivated by political beliefs he decided to move secretly, with his whole family, to the USSR. He remained there unbeknownst to the western world until 1955 when, at a press conference at the Moscow Academy of Sciences, he explained his decision to become a Soviet citizen to his colleagues and the world. After 28 years of absence from Italy, he returned there for the first time on 6 September 1978, but only for a few days, to celebrate the 70th birthday of his old friend Edoardo Amaldi, the only one of Fermi's Roman group still working in Italy.

The exhibition will be open from 30 November 2024 to 9 February 2025 with the following opening hours:

• Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Last admission one hour before closing.

https://palazzoblu.it/mostra/bruno-pontecorvo-da-pisa-a-mosca-un-viaggio-tra-storia-e-scienza/