Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi was an Italian Physicist who has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" for his creation of the first nuclear reactor. File:Fermi.jpg

Personal Life

Early Life/Education

Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy on the 29th of September 1901. He was the son of Alberto Fermi who was at the time a Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Communications. His mother, Ida de Gattis was an elementary school teacher. He was the youngest of 3, his sister, Maria, was 2 years older and his brother Giulio was a year older. Enrico was born into a Roman Catholic family but was an agnostic for his adult life. He attended a local grammar school until 1918 when he was given a fellowship of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. Enrico spent four years at the University of Pisa and earned his doctor's degree for physics in 1922. In 1923 he was given a scholarship from the Italian Government to work with Professor Max Born and in 1924 he moved back to Italy to take the position of Lecturer in Mathematical Physics and Mechanics at the University of Florence.

Accomplishments/Work

In 1926, Fermi discovered the statistical laws which are also know at the Fermi statistics. Fermi also had multiple patents (14) some of which related to the use of nuclear power and in 1938 was awarded the Nobel Prize for this work on induced radioactivity and the discovery of transuranic elements. He contributed to the development of quantum theory, statistical mechanics and nuclear physics. He worked on the Manhattan Project during the second World War after emigrating to the United States where he was the Professor of Physics at Columbia University (1939-1942). He also lead the team that designed and built Chicago Pile-1, which was the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in 1942. The element Fermium (atmoic number 100) is named after him along with many other awards, scholarships, laboratories and a space telescope.

Connectedness

1. How is this topic connected to something that you are interested in?

I find Fermi's work very interesting and am impressed with all of the contributions he made toward physics.

1. How is it connected to your major?

Some of his work (Fermi Statistics) is important in the concepts of Thermodyanmics.

See also

Fermi-Dirac Statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi%E2%80%93Dirac_statistics Manhattan Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project Ferium (Discovered by Enrico Fermi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermium

Further reading

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External links

Internet resources on this topic

References

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