Scientists whose work in physics, mathematics, nuclear science, astronomy and aerospace changed American research and national technology.
Einstein settled in the United States after the rise of Nazi Germany. His theories of relativity transformed modern physics, while his 1939 warning to President Franklin Roosevelt about possible German atomic research helped spur U.S. attention to nuclear weapons. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on the photoelectric effect.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Fermi left Fascist Italy and continued his work in the United States. At the University of Chicago in 1942, his team achieved the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, a decisive step in nuclear science and the Manhattan Project.
“Whatever nature has in store for mankind, unpleasant as it may be, men must accept, for ignorance is never better than knowledge.”
Von Neumann made major contributions to mathematics, quantum mechanics, game theory, economics and computing. The stored-program computer architecture associated with his name became a basic model for digital computers, while his wartime work also influenced U.S. weapons research.
“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”
Teller fled Europe and became a major figure in American nuclear research. He worked on the Manhattan Project and later became closely associated with development of the hydrogen bomb, remaining an influential and controversial voice in U.S. defense science for decades.
“No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.”
Szilard conceived the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction and later worked with Enrico Fermi on reactor concepts. He drafted the 1939 letter signed by Einstein that warned Roosevelt about atomic weapons, then became an outspoken advocate for control of nuclear arms.
“A scientist’s aim in a discussion with his colleagues is not to persuade, but to clarify.”
Bethe came to the United States after losing his German academic position under Nazi rule. He led the theoretical division at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and later won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physics for explaining the nuclear processes that power stars.
“I have done my share.”
Chandrasekhar developed the mass limit that determines whether a dying star can remain a white dwarf or must collapse further. His work became fundamental to modern stellar astrophysics and earned him a share of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics.
“The pursuit of science has often been compared to the scaling of mountains, high and not so high.”
Wu came to the United States for graduate study and became one of the leading experimental physicists of her era. Her famous parity experiment demonstrated that a long-assumed symmetry law did not hold in weak nuclear interactions, reshaping particle physics.
“I wonder whether the fact that I have always been pushing and setting goals for myself has anything to do with the fact that I am the first daughter of an immigrant family that had to fight to survive.”
After leaving the Soviet Union, Gamow worked in the United States on nuclear physics and cosmology. He helped develop Big Bang nucleosynthesis theory and also became an influential popularizer of science through books that made difficult physics accessible to general readers.
“If you are not somewhat confused by quantum mechanics, you have not understood it.”
Brought to the United States after World War II, von Braun became a leading figure in the American rocket program and later NASA’s Saturn V effort, which enabled the Apollo moon landings. His earlier work for Nazi Germany and the V-2 program remains inseparable from assessment of his legacy.
“Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.”