Ettore Majorana

Ettore Majorana
A portrait of Ettore Majorana
Born	5 August 1906 Catania
Died	??? Missing since 1938; likely still alive in 1959 unknown

Ettore Majorana (Italian: [ˈɛttore majoˈraːna]; born on 5 August 1906 – probably died after 1959) was an Italian theoretical physicist who worked on neutrino masses. On March 25, 1938, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances while going by ship from Palermo to Naples. The Majorana equation and Majorana fermions are named after him. In 2006, the Majorana Prize was established in his memory.

There are several categories of scientists in the world; those of second or third rank do their best but never get very far. Then there is the first rank, those who make important discoveries, fundamental to scientific progress. But then there are the geniuses, like Galilei and Newton. Majorana was one of these.

Majorana was born in Catania, Sicily. Mathematically gifted, he was very young when he joined Enrico Fermi's team in Rome as one of the "Via Panisperna boys", who took their name from the street address of their laboratory.

His uncle Quirino Majorana was also a physicist.

He began his university studies in engineering in 1923 but switched to physics in 1928 at the urging of Emilio Segrè. His first papers dealt with problems in atomic spectroscopy.