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Leo Szilard
Szilard, Leo
The Oxford Companion to World War II
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2001
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© The Oxford Companion to World War II 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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Szilard, Leo (1898–1964),Hungarian-born nuclear physicist who, after serving in the
First World War, studied physics in Berlin. He was the first to propound what then seemed the highly implausible idea of a nuclear chain reaction, crucial to the development of an
atomic bomb. When Hitler came to power in January 1933, Szilard went to the UK and then to the USA where he worked with
Enrico Fermi who supervised the first nuclear chain reaction in Chicago in December 1942.
More politically aware than most of his fellow nuclear physicists, Szilard encouraged the US government to continue research into the development of a nuclear weapon. In September 1939 he drafted the letter signed by Albert Einstein to Roosevelt which voiced his anxieties, and those of Fermi, that Germany might also be building one (see also
Heisenberg and
scientists at war).
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Leo Szilard was a brilliant father of the Bomb and a relentless peace-seeker
Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe; 2/7/1993; ; 700+ words
; ...GENIUS IN THE SHADOWS A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb. By...587 pp. Illustrated. $35. Leo Szilard today is almost completely unknown...brightly. Like a worker bee, Leo Szilard was constantly in motion, spreading...
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The power of the individual. (Leo Szilard's influence on policymaking)
Magazine article from: Issues in Science and Technology; 9/22/1997; ; 700+ words
; The life of Leo Szilard has important lessons for scientists eager to influence public policy. William Lanouette's fascinating biography of Leo Szilard, Genius in the Shadows, does more than reveal the life of a brilliant...
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Author William Lanouette Talks about Leo Szilard
Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 3/1/1993; 700+ words
; ...Hungarian physicist named Leo Zsilard stood at a street...chain reaction. In 1939, Szilard drafted the now-famous...for most of his life, Szilard did try to make this a...prickly personality make Leo Szilard almost impossible for...
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Atomic pile. (unsubstantiated espionage charges against J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and Niels Bohr) (Editorial)
Magazine article from: The Nation; 5/23/1994; ; 700+ words
; ...scientists--J. Robert Oppenheimer Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and Niels Bohr--are accused of collaborating with...s inept attempts to compromise Oppenheimer, Fermi, Szilard and Bohr become clear-cut cases of espionage. Resting...
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Simpson wins Szilard award.
Magazine article from: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; 5/1/1999; 666 words
; ...presented John A. Simpson with its 1999 Leo Szilard Award for Physics in the Public Interest...in March. During World War II, Szilard and Simpson worked in the Manhattan...principal founders of the Bulletin; Szilard later started the Council for a Livable...
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No Einstein: overshadowed by a legendary mentor, Leo Szitard switched on the Atomic Age.(Biography)
Magazine article from: Mechanical Engineering-CIME; 11/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...He was an Einstein protege named Leo Szilard, who probably wrote the letter...s how the relatively obscure Leo Szilard made things happen. Szilard...concerns for the fate of the world. Leo Szilard was born in Hungary in 1898. He...
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NO EINSTEIN
Magazine article from: Mechanical Engineering; 11/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...Overshadowed by a legendary mentor, Leo Szilard switched on the Atomic Age. By...He was an Einstein protg named Leo Szilard, who probably wrote the letter...s how the relatively obscure Leo Szilard made things happen. Szilard...
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Genius in the Shadows.
Magazine article from: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; 6/1/1993; ; 700+ words
; ...anecdote-rich biography of Leo Szilard, the inventive Hungarian physicist...after the bombing of Hiroshima, Szilard studied biology, advocated international...tensions. Based on research in the Leo Szilard papers, on extensive interviews...
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Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change
Magazine article from: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society; 5/1/2008; ; 700+ words
; ...The Story The story1 begins with Leo Szilard, the Hungarian physicist who first...possibility of a chain reaction, and Szilard and his colleague Enrico Fermi were...react under the right conditions. Szilard, Wigner, and Teller decided that...
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WEB WATCH.(World Wide Web sites dealing with specific scientists, their lives and thoughts)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; 7/1/1999; ; 700+ words
; ...szilard.html The man behind the Leo Szilard web site is Gene Dannen, who...scientist. He also poked through the Leo Szilard Papers at the University of California...and "scientist of conscience" Leo Szilard. The site may not win a design...
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Leo Szilard
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of World Biography
Leo Szilard The Hungarian-American physicist...later molecular biologist—Leo Szilard (1898-1964) helped initiate the atomic...nuclear disarmament and world peace. Leo Szilard was born in Budapest, Hungary, on February...
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Szilard, Leo
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to American Military History
Szilard, Leo (1898–1964), physicist...Weiss Szilard and Spencer Weart, eds., Leo Szilard: His Version of the Facts , 1978. Helen...Szilard, eds., Toward a Livable World: Leo Szilard and the Crusade for Nuclear Arms Control...
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Nuclear Protest Movements
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to American Military History
...world government and abolished war. Leo Szilard , a Hungarian physicist deeply impressed...seemed close to a breakthrough, Szilard—by then a refugee in...ominous development. Although the Szilard‐Einstein initiative helped...
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Manhattan Project
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to American Military History
...neutrons. In the United States, Leo Szilard , a physicist at the University of...enormous nuclear explosion. Prodded by Szilard, Albert Einstein, world‐...Manhattan Project agreed with this. Szilard, James Franck, and a majo
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Atoms and More: Physics
Book article from: American Decades
...that other nations might gain an advantage. Fermi, Leo Szilard, and several other physicists took steps first to interest...draw President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attention. Szilard convinced the openly pacifist Albert Einstein to write...
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