(1898 – 1964)

Physicist.

He was the catalyst of the Manhattan Project. Szilárd conceived the nuclear chain reaction and campaigned for nuclear disarmament, although he was the first to consider the application of the atom to making bombs. He had numerous joint patents with Einstein.

With Eugene Wigner, he convinced Einstein, the scientific community and President Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project.

Einstein’s 1939 letter to Roosevelt was ghostwritten by Szilárd. This letter started the Nuclear Age.

Invented: nuclear chain reaction, nuclear reactor, atomic bomb (co-developer), first sustained nuclear fission reaction (with Enrico Fermi).
The modern absorbtion refrigerator (1927).