of the predicted number were found. In response to this solar neutrino problem, he proposed a phenomenon known as neutrino oscillation, whereby electron neutrinos became muon neutrinos. The existence of the oscillations was finally established by the Super-Kamiokande experiment in 1998. He also predicted in 1958 that supernovae would produce intense bursts of neutrinos, which was confirmed in 1987 when Supernova SN1987A was detected by neutrino detectors. Biography Early life and education Pontecorvo was born on 22 August 1913 in Marina di Pisa, the fourth of eight children of Massimo Pontecorvo and his wife Maria . His older brother Guido, who was born in 1907, became a geneticist. His brother Paolo, who was born in 1909, became an engineer who worked on radar during World War II. His older sister Giuliana was born in 1911. His younger brother Gillo was born in 1919, and is best known as the director of The Battle of Algiers. He also had two younger sisters; Laura, who was born in 1921, and Anna, who was born in 1924, and a younger brother Giovanni, who was born in 1926. His family was a wealthy family; Massimo owned three textile factories employing over 1,000 people. The family was Jewish and non-observant, from Rome on his father's side and from Mantua - on his mother's. His grandfather on the maternal side, Arrigo Maroni (1852–1924), born in Mantua, was director of the Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Milan; his mother's cousin was a notable zoologist Elisa Gurrieri-Norsa (1868-1939). He enterered the University of Pisa intending to study engineering, but after two years he decided to switch to physics in 1931. On the advice of his brother Guido, he decided to study at the University of Rome La Sapienza, where Enrico Fermi had gathered together a group of promising young scientists known as the Via Panisperna boys after the name of the street where the Institute of Physics of Rome University was then situated. At the age of 18 he was admitted to the third year of Physics. Fermi described Pontecorvo as "scientifically one of the brightest men with whom I have come in contact in my scientific career". As their youngest member, the group nicknamed him Cucciolo, which means "puppy". In 1934, Pontecorvo contributed to Fermi's famous experiment showing the properties of slow neutrons that led the way to the discovery of nuclear fission. Pontecorvo's name was included on the