- Leopold Infeld
Leopold Infeld (
August 20 ,1898 ,Cracow –January 15 ,1968 ,Warsaw ) was a Polishphysicist . He was a Rockefeller fellow at Cambridge University (1933-1934) and a member of thePolish Academy of Sciences .He was interested in the
theory of relativity . He worked together withAlbert Einstein atPrinceton University (1936-1938). The two scientists co-formulated the equation describing star movements. He was awarded a doctorate at theJagiellonian University (1921), worked as an assistant and a docent at theUniversity of Lwów (1930-1933) and then as a professor at theUniversity of Toronto between 1939 and 1950.After the first use of nuclear weapons in 1945 Infeld, like Einstein, became a peace activist. Because of his activities, he was unjustly accused of having communist sympathies. In 1950 he left Canada and returned to communist Poland. He felt he had an obligation to help the science in Poland recover from the ravages of the
Second World War . In the strongly anti-communist climate of the time many in the Canadian government and media feared that, working in a communist country, he would betray nuclear weapons secrets. He was stripped of his Canadian citizenship and was widely denounced as a traitor. In actuality, Infeld's field was theory of relativity, not directly linked to nuclear weapons research.After his return to Poland, Infeld requested a leave of absence from the University of Toronto. His request was denied and Infeld resigned his post. In 1995 University of Toronto made amends and granted Infeld the posthumous title of
professor emeritus .Upon his return to Poland, Infeld became a professor at the
University of Warsaw , a post he held until his death.Infeld was one of the 11 signatories to the
Russell-Einstein Manifesto in 1955, and is the only signatory never to receive aNobel Prize . Infeld also wrote with Einstein "The Evolution of Physics", a widely read history of physical theory from the 17th century to the 20th.Infeld is the author of "Quest: An Autobiography" and the biography "Whom the Gods Love: The Story of
Evariste Galois ."Literature
Cite book
edition = Reprint
publisher = American Mathematical Society
isbn = 0821840738
last = Infeld
first = Leopold
title = Quest: An Autobiography
date = 2006(originally published 1965)
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