Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi (September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954) was an Italian-born physicist of United States citizenship most noted for his work on beta decay, the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for the development of quantum theory. Fermi won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity.

Early years and education

Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy in 1901. When his brother Giulio died during a minor surgery in 1915, 14-year-old Enrico threw himself into the study of physics as a way of coping with his grief. According to his later recollection, he would walk each day in front of the hospital where Giulio had died, until he could look back at the event with detachment.

Related Topics:
Rome - Italy - 1901 - Surgery - 1915 - Physics

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A friend of the family, Adolfo Amidei, guided the young Fermi's study of algebra, trigonometry, analytic geometry, calculus and theoretical mechanics. Amidei also suggested Fermi attend not a university in Rome but to apply to the prestigious "Scuola Normale Superiore" of Pisa, a special university-college for selected gifted students in 1918. Fermi did especially well, and the examiner at the Scuola Normale thought the 17-year-old Fermi's competition essay worthy of a doctoral exam. He graduated with a doctorate in 1922, and the next year left for the University of Göttingen, then the center of the quantum physics world. Fermi became unhappy, though, with what he saw as an excessively formal theoretical style under the influence of Max Born, and so after six months left for the University of Leiden, Netherlands, to work with Paul Ehrenfest. While there, he also met Albert Einstein.

Related Topics:
Algebra - Trigonometry - Analytic geometry - Calculus - Mechanics - University - Scuola Normale Superiore - Pisa - 1918 - Essay - Doctorate - 1922 - University of Göttingen - Quantum physics - Max Born - University of Leiden - Netherlands - Paul Ehrenfest - Albert Einstein

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