Physicist. He was a pioneer in the study of the elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos and who defected to the Soviet Union in 1950. He was one of a group of talented young physicists who worked with Enrico Fermi in Rome in the early 1930's on experiments that proved radioactive isotopes of a number of elements can be produced by exposing the elements to neutrons that have been slowed down. After Mussolini passed laws that discriminated against Jews, he, who was Jewish, moved to Paris to continue his work. He left for the United States in 1940 after the Nazi invasion. He worked briefly for an American oil company and then moved to Canada, where he applied to become a British citizen. In 1948, after he completed his naturalization, he moved to England to join the Atomic Energy Research Laboratory at Harwell, near Oxford. But in the late summer of 1950, he and his family disappeared during a vacation in Rome. They were last seen in Helsinki on Sept. 2, 1950, and were believed to have taken a ship to the Soviet Union with the help of Soviet diplomats in the Finnish capital. It was not until 1955, when he published articles in Pravda and Izvestia, that officials were certain he was working in the Soviet Union.
Physicist. He was a pioneer in the study of the elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos and who defected to the Soviet Union in 1950. He was one of a group of talented young physicists who worked with Enrico Fermi in Rome in the early 1930's on experiments that proved radioactive isotopes of a number of elements can be produced by exposing the elements to neutrons that have been slowed down. After Mussolini passed laws that discriminated against Jews, he, who was Jewish, moved to Paris to continue his work. He left for the United States in 1940 after the Nazi invasion. He worked briefly for an American oil company and then moved to Canada, where he applied to become a British citizen. In 1948, after he completed his naturalization, he moved to England to join the Atomic Energy Research Laboratory at Harwell, near Oxford. But in the late summer of 1950, he and his family disappeared during a vacation in Rome. They were last seen in Helsinki on Sept. 2, 1950, and were believed to have taken a ship to the Soviet Union with the help of Soviet diplomats in the Finnish capital. It was not until 1955, when he published articles in Pravda and Izvestia, that officials were certain he was working in the Soviet Union.
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