Fermi, Enrico 1901-54
US nuclear physicist and Nobel Prize winner

Born in Rome, Italy, he studied at Pisa University, at G�ttingen University under Max Born, and at the University of Leyden. He became Professor of Theoretical Physics at Rome University in 1927. Between 1927 and 1933 he expanded upon the work of Wolfgang Pauli, published his semiquantitative method of calculating atomic particles, and in 1934 he and his colleagues split the nuclei of uranium atoms by bombarding them with neutrons, thus producing artificial radioactive substances. This led to the discovery that slow neutrons are much more efficient than high-energy neutrons in initiating nuclear reactions, which proved an important step in the development of nuclear power and weapons. He was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize for physics. Fearing for the safety of his Jewish wife in the light of Italy's anti-Semitic legislation, he went straight from the prize presentation in Stockholm to the USA, where he became professor at Columbia University (1939). He played a prominent part in interesting the US Government in atomic energy, constructed the first US nuclear reactor at Chicago (1942), and produced the first controlled chain reaction. The element fermium is named after him.

Bibliography: Emilio Segr�, Enrico Fermi: Physicist (1970)