Weisskopf, Victor F(rederick) (1908–2002)

Austrian-born physicist. While a graduate student in Germany, he and E P Wigner made advancements in quantum electrodynamics in their studies of light emission by electrons. With Wolfgang Pauli, he postulated the existence of charged particles without spin in 1934; the discovery of the meson in 1946 supported this theory. He was a group leader of the USA's Manhattan Project at Los Alamos (1943–46). He also served CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, as its director-general.

Weisskopf was born in Vienna, Austria. He fled the Nazis in 1937 and moved to the USA, where he joined the University of Rochester (1937–43). He was on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1946–74), where he continued his research on the nucleus and subatomic particles. An accomplished pianist and lover of classical art and music, he published numerous books, including textbooks and autobiographical accounts of life as a physicist.