PHYSICIST

Leo Szilard

1898 - 1964

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Leo Szilard (; Hungarian: Leó Szilárd [ˈlɛoː ˈsilaːrd]; born Leó Spitz; February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964) was a Hungarian-born physicist, biologist and inventor who made numerous important discoveries in nuclear physics and the biological sciences. He conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, and patented the idea in 1936. In late 1939 he wrote the letter for Albert Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb, and then in 1945 wrote the Szilard petition asking president Harry S. Truman to demonstrate the bomb without dropping it on civilians. According to György Marx, he was one of the Hungarian scientists known as The Martians. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Leo Szilard is the 61st most popular physicist (up from 92nd in 2019), the 17th most popular biography from Hungary (up from 36th in 2019) and the most popular Hungarian Physicist.

Leo Szilard is most famous for his work on the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of the atomic bomb.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Leo Szilard ranks 61 out of 851. Before him are Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, Richard Feynman, Sheldon Lee Glashow, Patrick Blackett, Henry Cavendish, and Otto Stern. After him are Wolfgang Pauli, Andrei Sakharov, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Max Born, Charles Glover Barkla, and Paul Dirac.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1898, Leo Szilard ranks 12. Before him are Enzo Ferrari, Sergei Eisenstein, René Magritte, Stefania Turkewich, Umm Kulthum, and Zhou Enlai. After him are William James Sidis, M. C. Escher, Albert Lutuli, George Gershwin, C. S. Lewis, and Herbert Marcuse. Among people deceased in 1964, Leo Szilard ranks 2. Before him is Jawaharlal Nehru. After him are Douglas MacArthur, Herbert Hoover, Victor Francis Hess, Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Paul of Greece, Hans von Euler-Chelpin, James Franck, Alma Mahler, Rachel Carson, and Norbert Wiener.

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In Hungary

Among people born in Hungary, Leo Szilard ranks 17 out of 1,077. Before him are Ignaz Semmelweis (1818), Matthias Corvinus (1443), Miklós Horthy (1868), Harry Houdini (1874), Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria (1868), and Louis I of Hungary (1326). After him are Imre Kertész (1929), Imre Nagy (1896), Edward Teller (1908), Árpád (845), Franz Lehár (1870), and John Zápolya (1487).

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Among PHYSICISTS In Hungary

Among physicists born in Hungary, Leo Szilard ranks 1. After him are Edward Teller (1908), Eugene Wigner (1902), Dennis Gabor (1900), Georg von Békésy (1899), Arpad Elo (1903), Ferenc Krausz (1962), Nicholas Kurti (1908), Zoltán Lajos Bay (1900), Valentine Telegdi (1922), and Egon Orowan (1902).

Hungarian born Physicists

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