Bruno Pontecorvo Selected Scientific Works
Recollections on Bruno Pontecorvo
Second edition
The book under review was published by
the Italian Physical Society (Societa Italiana
di Fisica, SIF) to celebrate the centennial
anniversary of the birth of a great scientist and
man of the XX century – Bruno Pontecorvo,
who has made an extraordinary contribution to
different fields of Nuclear and Particle physics
and whose scientific intuition and human
principles are difficult to overestimate.
It is a second edition of Bruno Pontecorvo
selected scientific works and recollections
of different people. Compared to the first
edition, published in 1997 on the occasion
of the SIF centenary (1897-1997), the book
contains significant additional material, such as
a complete bibliography, new photos, personal
documents and new special contributions and
recollections.
The section of scientific works in the book remains unchanged compared to the first edition. The papers for this section were already carefully selected on the basis of their importance for the present-day physics. The section is organized in a chronological order which also gives the advantage of tracing the evolution of scientific interests and development of ideas of this great physicist with a very wide scientific scope. In this section the reader may also find especially interesting articles written by Pontecorvo on the history of science, his personal recollections about Enrico Fermi and the autobiography, in which the honest and intellectual spirit of Bruno Pontecorvo becomes evident.
A significant part of the book is devoted to the recollections on Bruno Pontecorvo written by people, who met him in different periods of his life, in different countries and on different occasions. They were his friends, coauthors, colleagues, pupils. Their articles are very different and describe general and particular things about Bruno Pontecorvo, but it is interesting to see their common feeling of great love and respect for this extraordinary man.
The book also contains numerous documental and photographic materials about Bruno Pontecorvo and his family. These photos create an evocative atmosphere for the reader and give a good flavor of the different scientific, cultural, pedagogical, sportive and other aspects of his life.
The longest period of the life of Bruno Pontecorvo (from 1950 till 1993) was connected to the town of Dubna, Moscow region, and his work at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). The study of Bruno Pontecorvo at this Institute is kept unchanged since his times. To commemorate this important place for the progress and history of science the European Physical Society (EPS) has established a new EPS Historic Site at JINR. The photo of the memorial plaque at the entrance of Bruno Pontecorvo’s study at JINR and a short description of the unveiling ceremony which took place on 22 February 2013 was also included in the new edition of the book. In conclusion, the book contains significant material about the life and scientific, human and cultural heritage of a great scientist and man – Bruno Pontecorvo. The material in the book is well selected and organized. It will be very interesting and useful for a wide range of readers: scientists, students, biographists and people interested in the history of science.
A. Olshevskiy
JINR, Dubna
- S.M. Bilenky, T.D. Blokhintseva, L. Cifarelli, V.A. Matveev, I.G. Pokrovskaya and M.G. Sapozhnikov (Editors)
- Bruno Pontecorvo Selected Scientific Works
- Recollections on Bruno Pontecorvo
- Second Edition
- SIF, Bologna, 2013
- pp. XXXII + 620, € 70,00
- ISBN 978-88-7438-080-0