Gino Segrè

Gino Segrè was born in Florence, Italy, to an Italian Jewish father (Angelo Segrè) and a German Catholic mother (Katherine ‘Katia’ Schall Segrè). He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1959 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963. 

He is the author of several books on the history of science, particularly on atomic physics. The family immigrated to New York City in May 1939, where they resided for 8 years before returning to Florence. Segre’s uncle, Nobel laureate physicist Emilio Segrè also emigrated to the United States in 1938 because of the anti-semitic laws enacted in Italy.

Afterward, Segre became a fellow at the European Organization of Nuclear Research and the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the University of Pennsylvania physics department as a professor in 1967, where he remained until he retired in 2007. His honors include fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation, Sloan Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation.

Segrè’s research has ranged across several major scientific topics within high-energy theoretical physics, including electroweak interactions, to develop a better understanding of symmetry violations. Within astrophysics, his research contributions have ranged from baryon asymmetry to pulsar kicks.

His work includes Pulsar Velocities and Neutrino Oscillations (with A Kusenko, Phys Rev Letters, 1996). Pulsar Kicks from Neutrino Oscillations (with A Kusenko, Phys Rev, 1999). And Implications of Gauge Unification for the Variation of the Fine Structure Constant (with P Langacker and Matt Strassler, Phys Letters, 2002).