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.

Nobel prize and the Manhattan Project

Fermi remained in Rome until 1938.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1938, Fermi won the Nobel Prize in Physics 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".

Related Topics:
1938 - Nobel Prize in Physics

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After Fermi received the prize in Stockholm, he, his wife Laura, and their children emigrated to New York. By this time, the Fascist government in Italy had instituted anti-Semitic laws, and Fermi's wife, Laura Capone, was Jewish. Soon after his arrival in New York, Fermi began working at Columbia University.

Related Topics:
Stockholm - Fascist - Anti-Semitic - Laura Capone - Columbia University

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At Columbia, Fermi verified the initial nuclear fission experiment of Hahn and Fritz Strassman (with the help of Booth and Dunning). Fermi then began studies that led to the construction of the first nuclear pile.

Related Topics:
Nuclear fission - Hahn - Fritz Strassman

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fermi recalled the beginning of the project in a speech given in 1954 when he retired as President of the American Physical Society:

Related Topics:
1954 - American Physical Society

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"I remember very vividly the first month, January, 1939, that I started working at the Pupin Laboratories because things began happening very fast. In that period, Niels Bohr was on a lecture engagement at the Princeton University and I remember one afternoon Willis Lamb came back very excited and said that Bohr had leaked out great news. The great news that had leaked out was the discovery of fission and at least the outline of its interpretation. Then, somewhat later that same month, there was a meeting in Washington where the possible importance of the newly discovered phenomenon of fission was first discussed in semi-jocular earnest as a possible source of nuclear power."

Related Topics:
1939 - Niels Bohr - Princeton University - Willis Lamb - Fission - Nuclear power

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the famous letter signed by Albert Einstein (transcribed by Leó Szilárd) to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, the Navy awarded Columbia University the first Atomic Energy funding of US$ 6,000. The money was used in studies which led to the first nuclear reactor ? Chicago Pile-1, a massive "pile" of graphite bricks and uranium fuel which went critical on December 2, 1942, at the University of Chicago. This experiment was a landmark in the quest for energy, and it was typical of Fermi's brilliance. Every step had been carefully planned, every calculation meticulously done by him. When man first achieved the first self sustained nuclear chain reaction, a coded phone call was made to one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project, James Conant: 'The Italian navigator has landed in the new world... The natives were very friendly'. The chain-reacting pile was important not only for its help in assessing the properties of fission ? needed for understanding the internal workings of an atomic bomb ? but because it would serve as a pilot plant for the massive reactors which would be created in Hanford, Washington, which would then be used to "breed" the plutonium needed for the bombs used at the Trinity test and Nagasaki. Eventually Fermi and Szilárd's reactor work was folded into the Manhattan Project.

Related Topics:
Albert Einstein - Leó Szilárd - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 1939 - Columbia University - Nuclear reactor - Chicago Pile-1 - Graphite - Uranium - December 2 - 1942 - University of Chicago - James Conant - Atomic bomb - Hanford, Washington - Breed - Plutonium - Trinity test - Nagasaki - Manhattan Project

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America in 1944.

Related Topics:
Naturalized citizen - 1944

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~