Roberto Salmeron visita campus Darcy Ribeiro (8074661734)

Roberto Aureliano Salmeron (June 16, 1922 – June 17, 2020) was a Brazilian electrical engineer and experimental nuclear

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and an emeritus Research Director at the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

(CNRS). Salmeron was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

. He did his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, in

, and in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in the

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro or University of Brazil (UFRJ; pt, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro or ') is a public research university located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the ...

(then named Universidade do Brasil), in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. From 1947 to 1950, he worked as researcher and physics instructor at the Escola Politécnica and in the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of the University of São Paulo, where he studied cosmic radiation under Italian physicists

Gleb Wataghin Gleb Vassielievich Wataghin (November 3, 1899 in Birzula, Russian Empire – October 10, 1986 in Turin, Italy) was a Russian-Italian theoretical and experimental physicist and a great scientific leader who gave a great impulse to the teaching and r ...

and

Giuseppe Occhialini Giuseppe Paolo Stanislao "Beppo" Occhialini ForMemRS (; 5 December 1907 – 30 December 1993) was an Italian physicist who contributed to the discovery of the pion or pi-meson decay in 1947 with César Lattes and Cecil Frank Powell, the latter ...

. From 1950 to 1953, Salmeron worked at the recently created Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas (Brazilian Center of Physical Research) in Rio. In São Paulo and Rio, Salmeron was contemporary of a brilliant generation of young Brazilian physicists, such as

César Lattes Cesare Mansueto Giulio Lattes (11 July 1924 – 8 March 2005), also known as César Lattes, was a Brazilian experimental physicist, one of the discoverers of the pion, a composite subatomic particle made of a quark and an antiquark. Life Latte ...

José Leite Lopes José Leite Lopes (October 28, 1918 – June 12, 2006) was a Brazilian theoretical physicist who worked in the field of quantum field theory and particle physics. Life Leite Lopes began his university studies in 1935, enrolling in industrial che ...

, Oscar Sala,

Mário Schenberg Mário Schenberg (var. ''Mário Schönberg'', ''Mario Schonberg'', ''Mário Schoenberg''; July 2, 1914 – November 10, 1990) was a Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer. Early life Schenberg was born in Recife, Brazil ...

Marcelo Damy de Souza Santos Marcelo Damy de Sousa Santos (July 14, 1914 – November 29, 2009) was a Brazilian physicist. Considered as one of the most important educators and researchers in physics in Brazil, along with Cesar Lattes, José Leite Lopes and Mario Schen ...

and

Jayme Tiomno Jayme Tiomno (April 16, 1920 in Rio de Janeiro – January 12, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian experimental and theoretical physicist with interests in particle physics and general relativity. He was member of the Brazilian Academy of ...

. From 1953 onwards, Salmeron lived in Europe, first doing his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from 1953 to 1955 at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

, under

Patrick Blackett Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett (18 November 1897 – 13 July 1974) was a British experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism, winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1948. ...

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner of Physics, and then as an associate researcher in the

European Organization for Nuclear Research The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

(CERN), in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, Switzerland, from 1955 to 1963. In 1963, Salmeron returned to Brazil and accepted a post as professor of physics in the newly created

Universidade de Brasília The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and " Olympiad". The Universiade is refer ...

. Unfortunately, the military dictatorship repressed strongly the faculty with liberal and leftist ideas and he joined 223 other professors in protest, who resigned from the University in October 1965. In 1966 Salmeron left definitely Brazil and went to work in Europe at CERN again, where he had an important role in experiments attempting to discover the

quark–gluon plasma Quark–gluon plasma (QGP) or quark soup is an interacting localized assembly of quarks and gluons at thermal (local kinetic) and (close to) chemical (abundance) equilibrium. The word ''plasma'' signals that free color charges are allowed. In a ...

. Afterwards (1967) he worked at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in Paris, France, one of the most important schools of engineering in the world.

References

Bibliography

* R Aldrovandi, A Santoro and J M Gago (eds)
Roberto Salmeron Festschrift: a Master and a Friend
AIAFEX, Rio de Janeiro. . * Conto dos 13 Príncipes, Palaiseau 2002

External links

Profile: Physics as Amusement. Roberto Salmeron
Ciência Hoje Magazine 31 (185). PDF (In Portuguese) * 1922 births 20th-century Brazilian engineers 20th-century Brazilian physicists 21st-century Brazilian engineers 21st-century Brazilian physicists Electrical engineers Brazilian nuclear physicists Brazilian people of Spanish descent Brazilian expatriate academics 2020 deaths University of São Paulo alumni People from São Paulo Federal University of Rio de Janeiro alumni French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists People associated with CERN Brazilian expatriates in the United Kingdom Brazilian expatriates in Switzerland {{Brazil-scientist-stub