Riccardo Giacconi , USA was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2002 for "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources" The other half was awarded to Masatoshi Koshiba and Raymond Davis.
 

 

Video recorded in 2004.  Giacconi explains that his father liked gadgets and was very bright and his mother was interested in maths, physics and geometry and wrote high school text books. He himself did not like school but was interested in architecture, philosophy and art. He chose physics in order to make a living but slept through most of his physics classes.

He started working in the laboratory at university and says essentially he started a new field as he discovered the first X-ray source. He goes on to explain that he is not religious and believes that irrational thinking of any kind is dangerous! He hopes that the progress of science can inject rationality into the world!

When talking about family, life and work, he says ‘you work hard because you can’t help it!’ He was ambitious and had a very exciting time ‘If you want to do science do it’ but thinks a certain irreverence for institutions is healthy and believes that science is not as dry as it is mostly described.

 

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