Melvin Schwartz's research and experimentation in the weak force of the four fundamental forces of nature resulted in the proof of the existence of the neutrino , a particle of zero-rest mass, and the Nobel Prize-winning discovery and definition of the two existing types of neutrinos, the electron neutrino and the muon neutrino.

Schwartz was born in New York City on November 2, 1932, to Harry and Hannah Shulman Schwartz. Desperately poor as a result of the Great Depression, his parents "worked extraordinarily hard," Schwartz was later to say, as quoted in Nobel Prize Winners Supplement, to provide some level of "economic stability" in their lives. He entered the world-famous Bronx High School of Science in 1944, at the age of 12, and graduated five years later. By that time, he had made up his mind to become a theoretical physicist. That decision having been made, his choice for a college education was...