Full professor in Naples
As far as we know, the last chapter of Majorana’s life
had Naples as its centre, where Ettore arrived in January
1938. Upon request of the board in charge of the
competition for a new full professorship in Theoretical
Physics in Italy (after that for Fermi in 1926),
the Minister of Education appointed
Majorana “independently of the competition rules, as
full professor of Theoretical Physics in a University of
the Italian kingdom because of his high and well deserved
reputation”. The chairman of the board was
Fermi and its secretary Carrelli.
At Naples, Majorana lectured on Theoretical Physics,
presenting Quantum Mechanics in a very modern way
by skilfully sandwiching its mathematical formalism
with real applications. The text of the complete set of
Majorana’s lectures is now available thanks to the
recent discovery of the “Moreno paper” – a faithful
copy of the original handwritten notes. Majorana’s
course was suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted by
his mysterious disappearance three months after his
appointment at Naples.