Szilárd, Leó

Leó Szilárd, a Hungarian-American physicist, was one of the first to realize that nuclear chain reactions could be used in bombs. Working at the University of Chicago with Enrico Fermi, he developed the first self-sustained nuclear reactor based on uranium fission. He helped convince Einstein to write a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt to set up a program to create the first atomic bomb and then worked with Fermi on the first nuclear reaction. After World War II, he actively protested nuclear warfare and supported the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Sources

  • Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2008. "Szilard, Leo." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth March 17, 2007; Last revised September 10, 2008; Retrieved July 21, 2009]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Szilard,_Leo>

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