The Jews | Jack Steinberger: The Man Who Cracked the Nearly Unseeable

The Jews | Jack Steinberger: The Man Who Cracked the Nearly Unseeable First column in a new series

May 25, 1921. In the small German town of Bad Kissingen, a Jewish boy named Hans Jakob Steinberger was born. He would later become known as Jack. At the time, the world of physics had no idea it had just gained one of the greatest minds who would go on to push the boundaries of human understanding of matter and the universe.

Like many German Jews in the 1930s, Steinberger's family was forced to flee the Nazis. At age 13, he boarded a ship to the United States alone, as part of a rescue program for Jewish children. His parents stayed behind but managed to escape shortly after. It wasn’t easy to adapt to a foreign country without knowing the language and without a home. But Jack stood out. Not through charisma or boldness, but quietly — through numbers, formulas, and the instincts of a genius.

He studied chemistry and later switched to physics. He earned his PhD at the University of Chicago under the guidance of Enrico Fermi, one of the founding fathers of the American nuclear program. Steinberger became part of a golden generation of Jewish-American physicists — children of immigrants who had fled Europe and went on to become the architects of modern science.

His greatest recognition came in 1988, when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside Leon Lederman and Melvin Schwartz for the discovery of a new type of neutrino, the muon neutrino. Sounds complicated? It is. But in short, the neutrino is a subatomic particle that passes through Earth without leaving almost any trace. It’s invisible, nearly undetectable, yet essential to understanding the laws of nature.

Steinberger worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and later at CERN in Switzerland, where he lived and conducted research for decades. He was also known for his rare scientific integrity. He refused to be listed as a Nobel co-recipient if he felt his contribution wasn’t sufficient, and just as firmly ensured others received credit when it was due — even if his own name led the list.

Despite his achievements, Steinberger maintained a low profile. He lived simply, was active in human rights, opposed nuclear weapons, and never denied his heritage. As a thoroughly secular scientist, he embodied a kind of Jewish brilliance. Though an atheist, he once said, “Nevertheless, I have a certain respect for religion. My atheism does not necessarily reject religion.”

He passed away in 2020 at the age of 99, nearly a century after his birth in a small Bavarian town, having transformed the way we understand the universe.