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'''Bruno Pontecorvo''' (22 August 1913 - 24 September 1993) was an [[Italy|Italian]] nuclear physicist who famously defected to the [[USSR]] in 1950. Born into a non-observant [[Jewish]] family, he fled from [[Europe]] to the [[USA]] in 1940. In 1943 he became a member of the joint Anglo-Canadian atomic energy team at [[Montreal]]. In 1948 he obtained [[Great Britain|British]] citizenship and joined the British atomic bomb project at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE), in Harwell, [[Oxfordshire]] where he joined the Nuclear Physics Division as a principal scientific officer, led by [[Egon Bretscher]]. In 1950 he was due to take up the position of chair of physics at [[Liverpool University]] but disappeared with his family after visiting [[Stockholm]]. His disappearance came just 10 months after another Harwell scientist, [[Klaus Fuchs]], confessed to [[espionage|spying]] for the [[Soviet Union]]. The then British Minister of Supply, George Strauss, told [[Member of Parliament|MPs]] that the professor had had only limited access to "secret subjects" for some time, but he admitted it would have been possible for the professor to gather information, at Harwell or while he was in Canada, which could be "of value to the enemy".

'''Bruno Pontecorvo''' (22 August 1913 - 24 September 1993) was an [[Italy|Italian]]-born nuclear physicist who famously defected to the [[USSR]] in 1950.  

 

Born into a non-observant [[Jewish]] family, he fled from [[Europe]] to the [[USA]] in 1940. In 1943 he became a member of the joint Anglo-Canadian atomic energy team at [[Montreal]]. In 1948 he obtained [[Great Britain|British]] citizenship and joined the British atomic bomb project at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE), in Harwell, [[Oxfordshire]] where he joined the Nuclear Physics Division as a principal scientific officer, led by [[Egon Bretscher]].  

 

In 1950 he was due to take up the position of chair of physics at [[Liverpool University]] but disappeared with his family after visiting [[Stockholm]]. His disappearance came just 10 months after another Harwell scientist, [[Klaus Fuchs]], confessed to [[espionage|spying]] for the [[Soviet Union]]. The then British Minister of Supply, George Strauss, told [[Member of Parliament|MPs]] that the professor had had only limited access to "secret subjects" for some time, but he admitted it would have been possible for the professor to gather information, at Harwell or while he was in Canada, which could be "of value to the enemy".

Confirmation he had fled to Moscow came in March 1955 when he appeared at a news conference in Russia. He also wrote an article in [[Pravda]] in which he said he was involved in research into the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and had left the West because in his view it was intent on "new war using atomic and nuclear weapons as a means for achieving world domination".  

Confirmation he had fled to Moscow came in March 1955 when he appeared at a news conference in Russia. He also wrote an article in [[Pravda]] in which he said he was involved in research into the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes and had left the West because in his view it was intent on "new war using atomic and nuclear weapons as a means for achieving world domination".