The family heritage
Ettore Majorana was born on 5 August 1906 in Catania,
Sicily (Italy), to Fabio Majorana and Dorina Corso. The
fourth of five sons, he had a rich scientific, technological
and political heritage: three of his uncles were chancellors
of the University of Catania and members of the
Italian parliament, while another, Quirino Majorana, was a
renowned experimental physicist who was once president of the
Italian Physical Society. Indeed, Ettore’s father was an
engineer who founded the first telephone company in
Sicily and who went on to become chief inspector of the
Ministry of Communications.
Fabio Majorana was also responsible for the education
of his son in the first years of his life, until the family
moved to Rome in 1921. Ettore left school in 1923
at the age of 17 and joined the Faculty of Engineering at
the University of Rome, where he excelled and counted
Giovanni Gentile Jr and future Nobel laureate Emilio
Segrè among his friends.