Frederick Reines Biography

Frederick Reines was an American physicist who won a share of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his co-detection of the neutrino with Clyde Cowan in the neutrino experiment. It was in the early 1950s that Reines and Cowan first developed the equipment and techniques with which they detected neutrinos which were at that time considered undetectable. Their findings proved to be very significant to international research in the field and ultimately culminated in Reines’s winning the coveted Nobel Prize. Born in the United States to Jewish emigrants from Russia, he received a typical middle-class upbringing. He had three elder siblings who were very studious and influenced their youngest brother to perform well in school. During his senior year at high school, he became deeply interested in science and decided to become a physicist. He went on to attend Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, from where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering. After completing his masters and receiving his doctorate, he began working in the Theoretical Division at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory. His collaborative work with Clyde Cowan over the course of his career led to many important discoveries in the field of neutrino research which eventually earned Reines a share of the Nobel Prize.