A native of Hungary, Leo Szilard was one of the leading contributors to the development of nuclear energy and the first atomic weapons. He was also among the earliest and most active campaigners for nuclear arms control. In 1942, with Enrico Fermi , he set up the first nuclear chain reaction. He later became increasingly interested in the fields of molecular energy and biophysics, and helped develop the electron microscope.

Leo Szilard was born in Budapest, Hungary, on February 11, 1898, to Louis Szilard, an architect and engineer, and his wife, the former Thekla Vidor. The eldest of three children, Leo was a sickly child, and for a number of years his mother taught him at home.

Educated in Budapest and Berlin

In the fall of 1916, Szilard entered the Budapest Institute of Technology, intending to major in electrical engineering. At the end of his first year at the institute, he was called...