Fermi, Enrico

(1901–1954)

   One of the finest theoretical physicists of the last century, Enrico Fermi was one of the fathers of the atomic bomb and a pioneer in the field of nuclear fission. Fermi was born in Rome and was educated at the universities of Pisa and Gottingen. In 1926, when he was still in his midtwenties, he returned to Italy to become professor of theoretical physics at the University of Rome. Initially, Fermi cooperated with the Fascist regime, accepting membership in the Accademia d’Italia. In 1938, Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of the lasting importance of his work in atomic structure and the nature of radioactivity. Benito Mussolini’s increasingly pro-Nazi policies had long been causing Fermi, whose wife was Jewish, great anguish and—after receiving the prize in Stockholm—he fled to the United States.

   In 1942, he was one of the group of scientists at the University of Chicago who produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. In the closing years of the war, he worked on Project Manhattan and played a crucial role in ensuring that the Allies, rather than Nazi Germany, won the race to build nuclear weapons. After the war, Fermi returned to the University of Chicago to pursue his research on the behavior of neutrons. He died in Chicago in 1954. The chemical element Fermium (Fm), which is produced artificially in thermonuclear explosions, was named in his honor.

   See also Racial Laws.