Bruno Benedetto Rossi papers
Scope and Contents of the Collection
Rossi's education and early teaching career are recorded in lecture notes of one of his professors, annotated by Rossi, his physics course notebooks, and his published lecture notes from the University of Padua. An unpublished autobiography provides information about Rossi's life, including his MIT years. There is correspondence about his efforts to find a position in an American or British physics laboratory before World War II, together with copies of his curriculum vitae and teaching materials, available on microfilm. Also included are copies of Rossi's published writings, mostly on x-ray astronomy, some of which are available on microfilm.
Dates
- 1922 - 1990
Creator
- Rossi, Bruno, 1905-1993 (Person)
Access note
Portions of this collection must be reviewed to identify any restricted material before access can be granted. Please submit your requests at least ten business days before your desired visit to allow time for this review. An archivist will respond within five business days to let you know whether your requested material is open. For complete information on this policy, see our Statement on Accessing Institute Records. Restrictions and materials requiring review are noted in the finding aid.
Conditions Governing Use
Access to collections in the Department of Distinctive Collections is not authorization to publish. Please see the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy for permission information. Copyright of some items in this collection may be held by respective creators, not by the donor of the collection or MIT.
Biography
Bruno Benedetto Rossi, 1905-1993, PhD in physics, 1927, University of Bologna, after four years as assistant professor of physics at the University of Florence, was named professor of physics at the University of Padua. He was dismissed by the Fascist government and left Italy in 1938. He came to the United States in 1939 at the invitation of Arthur Compton to work as a research associate at the University of Chicago. He was associate professor of physics at Cornell University from 1940 to 1943, when he joined the staff of the Los Alamos Laboratory for the duration of World War II. He came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1946 as professor and was named Institute Professor in 1966. He was active in the work of the Physical Science Study Committee in developing new materials for the teaching of high school physics. As a member of the Space Science Board of the National Academy of Sciences and other advisory groups, he helped formulate public policy in the exploration of space.
In 1929 he invented the first electronic circuit for recording the simultaneous occurrence of three or more electrical pulses, which proved to be one of the fundamental electronic devices for experimental high energy physics as well as a basic element of the modern computer. His research interests included the properties of mesons, and their spontaneous radioactive decay; the nature of the high energy interactions between fundamental particles which occur when cosmic rays collide with matter; and the astrophysical problems of the origin and propagation of cosmic rays. In 1960 he initiated an exploratory search for cosmic x-rays which led to the discovery of the Scipio x-ray source, the first non-solar source of cosmic x-rays to be observed.
MIT News Office obituary:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1993/rossi-1201.html
Extent
42 Cubic Feet (40 record cartons, 3 manuscript boxes, 2 half manuscript boxes, 1 flat box)
Language of Materials
English
Location
Materials are stored off-site. Advance notice is required for use.
Source of Acquisiton
The papers were given to Distinctive Collections (formerly the Institute Archives and Special Collections) in March 1983 by Bruno Rossi. Additional materials were received from Bruno Rossi in 1986, 1988, and 1991. Papers received in 1996, 2000, and 2001 were transferred from the Center for Space Research Reading Room.
Processing Information note
This collection is unprocessed.
Processing Information note
Some collection descriptions are based on legacy data and may be incomplete or contain inaccuracies. Description may change pending verification. Please contact the MIT Department of Distinctive Collections if you notice any errors or discrepancies.
- Blackett, P. M. S. (Patrick Maynard Stuart), Baron Blackett
- Cosmic rays -- Research. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Emo, Lorenzo
- Institute Professors Subject Source: Local sources
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- Faculty Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Physicists -- Biography Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Rossi, Bruno, 1905-1993
- Sandoval Vallarta, Manuel, 1899-1977
- Universita di Padova
- X-ray astronomy -- Research. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
Creator
- Rossi, Bruno, 1905-1993 (Person)
- Title
- Preliminary Inventory to the Papers of Bruno Benedetto Rossi
- Status
- Ready For Review
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
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Repository Details
Part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Libraries. Department of Distinctive Collections Repository
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries
Building 14N-118
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02139-4307 US
distinctive-collections@mit.edu