Leo Szilard, near Oxford, spring/summer 1936. Photo copyright U.C. Regents; used by permission. Contact Special Collections and Archives, U.C. San Diego, for information on obtaining Szilard images. Welcome to the world of physicist, molecular biologist, and “scientist of conscience” Leo Szilard (1898-1964). Szilard conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, and spent the rest of his life tryin