Antonino Lo Surdo

Antonino Lo Surdo(4 February 1880 inSyracuse– 7 June 1949 in Rome) was an Italian physicist.He was appointed as professor of physics at the Istituto di Fisica in Rome in 1919; upon the death ofOrso Mario Corbinoin 1937, he became the director. Lo Surdo studied terrestrial physics, including seismology and geophysics; the1908 Messina earthquakecaused the death of his parents and other close relatives, except his brother. He contributed to the foundation of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica under the auspices of theConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,when its president wasGuglielmo Marconi.

His name is remembered for the discovery (made independently byJohannes Stark) in 1913 of the effect on an electric field on the emission spectrum of a gas. This physical phenomenon is called theStark-Lo Surdo effectin Italy (and is generally known outside Italy simply as theStark effect). The discovery of the effect was a remarkably important contribution to the development of the quantum theory. Lo Surdo's discovery of the effect ledAntonio Garbassoto introduce quantum theory into the Italian universities.