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Education
and
early
career
Fermi
was
the
youngest
of
the
three
children
of
Alberto
Fermi,
a
railroad
employee,
and
Ida
de
Gattis.
Enrico,
an
energetic
and
imaginative
student
prodigy
in
high
school,
decided
to
become
a
physicist.
At
the
age
of
17
he
entered
the
Reale
Scuola
Normale
Superior,
which
is
associated
with
the
University
of
Pisa.
There
he
earned
his
doctorate
at
the
age
of
21
with
a
thesis
on
research
with
X
rays.
After
a
short
visit
in
Rome,
Fermi
left
for
Germany
with
a
fellowship
from
the
Italian
Ministry
of
Public
Instruction
to
study
at
the
University
of
Göttingen
under
the
physicist
Max
Born,
whose
contributions
to
quantum
mechanics
were
part
of
the
knowledge
prerequisite
to
Fermi's
later
work.
He
then
returned
to
teach
mathematics
at
the
University
of
Florence.
In
1926
his
paper
on
the
behaviour
of
a
perfect,
hypothetical
gas
impressed
the
physics
department
of
the
University
of
Rome,
which
invited
him
to
become
a
full
professor
of
theoretical
physics.
Within
a
short
time,
Fermi
brought
together
a
new
group
of
physicists,
all
of
them
in
their
early
20s.
In
1926
he
developed
a
statistical
method
for
predicting
the
characteristics
of
electrons
according
to
Pauli's
exclusion
principle,
which
suggests
that
there
cannot
be
more
than
one
subatomic
particle
that
can
be
described
in
the
same
way.
In
1928
he
married
Laura
Capon,
by
whom
he
had
two
children,
Nella
in
1931
and
Giulio
in
1936.
The
Royal
Academy
of
Italy
recognized
his
work
in
1929
by
electing
him
to
membership
as
the
youngest
member
in
its
distinguished
ranks.
This
theoretical
work
at
the
University
of
Rome
was
of
first-rate
importance,
but
new
discoveries
soon
prompted
Fermi
to
turn
his
attention
to
experimental
physics.
In
1932
the
existence
of
an
electrically
neutral
particle,
called
the
neutron,
was
discovered
by
Sir
James
Chadwick
at
Cambridge
University.
In
1934
Frédéric
and
Irène
Joliot-Curie
in
France
were
the
first
to
produce
artificial
radioactivity
by
bombarding
elements
with
alpha
particles,
which
are
emitted
as
positively
charged
helium
nuclei
from
polonium.
Impressed
by
this
work,
Fermi
conceived
the
idea
of
inducing
artificial
radioactivity
by
another
method:
using
neutrons
obtained
from
radioactive
beryllium
but
reducing
their
speed
by
passing
them
through
paraffin,
he
found
the
slow
neutrons
were
especially
effective
in
producing
emission
of
radioactive
particles.
He
successfully
used
this
method
on
a
series
of
elements.
When
he
used
uranium
of
atomic
weight
92
as
the
target
of
slow-neutron
bombardment,
however,
he
obtained
puzzling
radioactive
substances
that
could
not
be
identified.
Fermi's
colleagues
were
inclined
to
believe
that
he
had
actually
made
a
new,
"transuranic"
element
of
atomic
number
93;
that
is,
during
bombardment,
the
nucleus
of
uranium
had
captured
a
neutron,
thus
increasing
its
atomic
weight.
Fermi
did
not
make
this
claim,
for
he
was
not
certain
what
had
occurred;
indeed,
he
was
unaware
that
he
was
on
the
edge
of
a
world-shaking
discovery.
As
he
modestly
observed
years
later,
"We
did
not
have
enough
imagination
to
think
that
a
different
process
of
disintegration
might
occur
in
uranium
than
in
any
other
element.
Moreover,
we
did
not
know
enough
chemistry
to
separate
the
products
from
one
another."
One
of
his
assistants
commented
that
"God,
for
His
own
inscrutable
ends,
made
everyone
blind
to
the
phenomenon
of
atomic
fission."
Late
in
1938
Fermi
was
named
a
Nobel
laureate
in
physics
"for
his
identification
of
new
radioactive
elements
produced
by
neutron
bombardment
and
for
his
discovery
of
nuclear
reaction
effected
by
slow
neutrons."
He
was
given
permission
by
the
Fascist
government
of
Mussolini
to
travel
to
Sweden
to
receive
the
award.
As
they
had
already
secretly
planned,
Fermi
and
his
wife
and
family
left
Italy,
never
to
return,
for
they
had
no
respect
for
Fascism.
In
1938,
Fermi
was
without
doubt
the
greatest
expert
on
neutrons,
and
he
continued
his
work
on
this
topic
on
his
arrival
in
the
United
States,
where
he
was
soon
appointed
Professor
of
Physics
at
Columbia
University,
N.Y.
(1939-I942).
Upon
the
discovery
of
fission,
by
Hahn
and
Strassmann
early
in
1939,
he
immediately
saw
the
possibility
of
emission
of
secondary
neutrons
and
of
a
chain
reaction.
He
proceeded
to
work
with
tremendous
enthusiasm,
and
directed
a
classical
series
of
experiments
which
ultimately
led
to
the
atomic
pile
and
the
first
controlled
nuclear
chain
reaction.
This
took
place
in
Chicago
on
December
2,
1942
-
on
a
volleyball
field
situated
beneath
Chicago's
stadium.
He
subsequently
played
an
important
part
in
solving
the
problems
connected
with
the
development
of
the
first
atomic
bomb
(He
was
one
of
the
leaders
of
the
team
of
physicists
on
the
Manhattan
Project
for
the
development
of
nuclear
energy
and
the
atomic
bomb.)
In
1944,
Fermi
became
American
citizen,
and
at
the
end
of
the
war
(1946)
he
accepted
a
professorship
at
the
Institute
for
Nuclear
Studies
of
the
University
of
Chicago,
a
position
which
he
held
until
his
untimely
death
in
1954.
There
he
turned
his
attention
to
high-energy
physics,
and
led
investigations
into
the
pion-nucleon
interaction.
During
the
last
years
of
his
life
Fermi
occupied
himself
with
the
problem
of
the
mysterious
origin
of
cosmic
rays,
thereby
developing
a
theory,
according
to
which
a
universal
magnetic
field
-
acting
as
a
giant
accelerator
-
would
account
for
the
fantastic
energies
present
in
the
cosmic
ray
particles.
Professor
Fermi
was
the
author
of
numerous
papers
both
in
theoretical
and
experimental
physics.
His
most
important
contributions
were:
"Sulla
quantizzazione
del
gas
perfetto
monoatomico",
Rend.
Accad.
Naz.
Lincei,
1935
(also
in
Z.
Phys.,
1936),
concerning
the
foundations
of
the
statistics
of
the
electronic
gas
and
of
the
gases
made
of
particles
that
obey
the
Pauli
Principle.
Several
papers
published
in
Rend.
Accad.
Naz.
Lincei,
1927-28,
deal
with
the
statistical
model
of
the
atom
(Thomas-Fermi
atom
model)
and
give
a
semiquantitative
method
for
the
calculation
of
atomic
properties.
A
resumé
of
this
work
was
published
by
Fermi
in
the
volume:
Quantentheorie
und
Chemie,
edited
by
H.
Falkenhagen,
Leipzig,
1928.
"Uber
die
magnetischen
Momente
der
AtomKerne",
Z.
Phys.,
1930,
is
a
quantitative
theory
of
the
hyperfine
structures
of
spectrum
lines.
The
magnetic
moments
of
some
nuclei
are
deduced
therefrom.
"Tentativo
di
una
teoria
dei
raggi
ß",
Ricerca
Scientifica,
1933
(also
Z.
Phys.,
1934)
proposes
a
theory
of
the
emission
of
ß-rays,
based
on
the
hypothesis,
first
proposed
by
Pauli,
of
the
existence
of
the
neutrino.
The
Nobel
Prize
for
Physics
was
awarded
to
Fermi
for
his
work
on
the
artificial
radioactivity
produced
by
neutrons,
and
for
nuclear
reactions
brought
about
by
slow
neutrons.
The
first
paper
on
this
subject
"Radioattività
indotta
dal
bombardamento
di
neutroni"
was
published
by
him
in
Ricerca
Scientifica,
1934.
All
the
work
is
collected
in
the
following
papers
by
himself
and
various
collaborators:
"Artificial
radioactivity
produced
by
neutron
bombardment",
Proc.
Roy.
Soc.,
1934
and
1935;
"On
the
absorption
and
diffusion
of
slow
neutrons",
Phys.
Rev.,
1936.
The
theoretical
problems
connected
with
the
neutron
are
discussed
by
Fermi
in
the
paper
"Sul
moto
dei
neutroni
lenti",
Ricerca
Scientfica,
1936.
His
Collected
Papers
are
being
published
by
a
Committee
under
the
Chairmanship
of
his
friend
and
former
pupil,
Professor
E.
Segrè
(Nobel
Prize
winner
1959,
with
O.
Chamberlain,
for
the
discovery
of
the
antiproton).
Fermi
was
member
of
several
academies
and
learned
societies
in
Italy
and
abroad
(he
was
early
in
his
career,
in
1929,
chosen
among
the
first
30
members
of
the
Royal
Academy
of
Italy).
As
lecturer
he
was
always
in
great
demand
(he
has
also
given
several
courses
at
the
University
of
Michigan,
Ann
Arbor;
and
Stanford
University,
Calif.).
He
was
the
first
recipient
of
a
special
award
of
$50,000
-
which
now
bears
his
name
-
for
work
on
the
atom.
Professor
Fermi
married
Laura
Capon
in
1928.
They
had
one
son
Giulio
and
one
daughter
Nella.
His
favourite
pastimes
were
walking,
mountaineering,
and
winter
sports.
He
died
in
Chicago
on
29th
November,
1954.
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