Frederick Reines is best known for his discovery of the neutrino , a particle that is created during a nuclear reaction. Since that discovery, he continued to concentrate on the search for neutrinos and study their characteristics and behaviors. In later years, Reines studied the possibility of proton decay, an experiment whose negative results have had important significance for elementary particle theory.

Reines was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on March 16, 1918. His father was Israel Reines and his mother was Gussie Cohen Reines. After graduation from high school in 1935, Reines enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology, from which he earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1939 and an M.A. in science in 1941. He then went to New York University, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1944. His first job was at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, where he was first a staff...