ENRICO FERMI

 

ENRICO FERMI(1901-1951):

He was a Nobel Laureate In Physics.

He was born in Rome, Italy on 29 September 1901. His father's name was Alberto Fermi and Mother's name was Ida De Gattis. His father was a division head in the Ministry of Railways. His mother was a teacher. He had one brother and one sister. In 1918,He graduated from high school and applied to thescuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. In 1922,he earned his doctorate degree in physics. In 1932,he won scholarship from the Italian Government. In 1924,Awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship. In 1924,he returned to Italy and was appointed as a Lecturer in Mathematical Physics and Mechanics at the University of Florence, a post he held for the next two years.

In 1927, He landed a position as a professor at the Sapieza University of Rome. In 1928,he published INTRODUCTION TO ATOMIC PHYSICS which went on to become an informative text for University students in Italy. He, along with other physicists, was working on the concept of Beta decay,a type of radioactive decay.

He evolved the Beta decay theory and by 1934 had made significant contribution to this area which resulted in the discovery of slow neutrons. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1938. Primarily to escape the fascism in Italy.

In 1942,the posts of a professor at the Columbia University where he served till. He supervised the first man made self sustaining nuclear chain reaction that was initiated in Chicago pile 1 on 2 December 1942. In 1944, he became an American citizen and was appointed a professor at the Institute of Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. He married Laura Capon on July 19, 1928. The couple had two children.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1938 for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons. The Hughes Medal was presented to him in 1942 for his outstanding contributions to the knowledge of the electrical structure of matter, his work in quantum theory and his experimental studies of the neutron.

He became ill with stomach cancer.

He died in Chicago, Illionis, the United states on 28 November 1954, at the age of 53.