Giuseppe Occhialini | |
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| Born | Giuseppe Paolo Stanislao Occhialini (1907-12-05)5 December 1907 |
| Died | 30 December 1993(1993-12-30) (aged 86) |
| Alma mater | University of Florence |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Particle physics |
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Giuseppe Paolo Stanislao"Beppo" Occhialini (Italian:[dʒuˈzɛppeokkjaˈliːni]; 5 December 1907 – 30 December 1993) was an Italianexperimental physicist who contributed to the discovery of thepion or pi-meson decay in 1947 withCésar Lattes andCecil Powell, the latter winning theNobel Prize in Physics for this work. At the time of this discovery, they were all working at the H. H. Wills Laboratory of theUniversity of Bristol.
The X-ray satellite SAX was namedBeppoSAX in his honor after its launch in 1996.
_P.S._Occhialini_(1907%25E2%2580%25931993)_and_Patrick_M.S._Blackett_(1897%25E2%2580%25931974)_in_1932_or_1933.png)
Giuseppe Paolo Stanislao Occhialini was born on 5 December 1907 inFossombrone, Italy, and graduated from theUniversity of Florence in 1929. In 1932, he collaborated in the discovery of thepositron incosmic rays in theCavendish Laboratory at theUniversity of Cambridge, under the leadership ofPatrick Blackett, usingcloud chambers.
In 1934, Occhialini returned in Italy in 1934, where he suffered from the political climate generated byfascism. Thus, from 1937 to 1944, following an invitation byGleb Wataghin, he worked at the Institute of Physics of theUniversity of São Paulo in Brazil.
In 1944, Occhialini returned to England, working in the Wills Physics Laboratory at theUniversity of Bristol, where he studied cosmic rays. In 1947, while in Bristol, he contributed to the discovery of thepion or pi-meson decay in collaboration withCésar Lattes,Cecil Powell, andHugh Muirhead. The discovery was made using the technology of the tracks on specialized photographic emulsions. Powell won theNobel Prize in Physics in 1950, in large part for this work.[2]
In 1950, Occhialini returned to Italy, teaching first at theUniversity of Genoa and then in the Physics Department at theUniversity of Milan in 1952.
Occhialini was a protagonist in cosmic ray research with the nuclear utilization of photographic emulsions exposed to high energy cosmic radiation, work which culminated in 1954 with the European G-Stack collaboration, that focused on the decay products of thekaons. Later on with the coming of particle accelerators, Occhialini explored that new field of research. He also made outstanding contributions to space physics, importantly contributing to the foundation of theEuropean Space Agency.[3]
Beppo Occhialini was an avid mountain climber. During WW II, staying inBrazil, then a country hostile toItaly, he became an authorized alpine guide in theParque Nacional do Itatiaia, where there is a peak named "Pico Occhialini".
