Enrico Fermi

Italian-American theoretical physicist. Famous for work on the first nuclear reactor, Nobel laureate.

[ Born: 1901 / Rome, Italy ]

[ Died: 1954 / Chicago, USA. ]

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• 1930 - While working in Rome on beta decay theory, Fermi discovered the existence of “slow neutrons” – which would prove crucial to subsequent work on nuclear fission, (“splitting the atom”)
• The Nobel prize in Physics of 1938 was awarded to Fermi 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"
• Fermi moved to the US in 1938, and in 1939 began work on the first nuclear reactor in the University of Chicago and in 1942 the first sustained nuclear chain-reaction was achieved.
• Fermi then moved on to become a consultant on the Manhattan Project, which would result in the first atomic bomb.
• The fermion (the sub-atomic particle), the Fermi-Gamma ray telescope, fermium – a synthetic element and the Fermi National Accelerator lab in the US are all named after Fermi in honour of his huge contribution to science.

Trivia - Fermi died in 1953 due to stomach cancer, most likely acquired due to radiation exposure during his work on the first nuclear reactor.

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