Born on September 29, 1901, Enrico Fermi showed
his propensity for physics at an early age by wandering the streets
of Rome and hunting down classic works on the subject. He devoured
the books, including one in Latin. A colleague of his father's,
who worked for the Italian railways, recognized his talents, encouraged
his studies, and suggested that he apply for entrance to Italy's
famed Scuola Normale at Pisa. His parents were reluctant to let
him go because they had lost another son, but finally relented.
Fermi became a star at Pisa, instructing his professors
on the new quantum mechanics. Upon returning to Rome, he drew
the attention of Orso Mario Corbino, a physicist, Senator, and
cabinet minister. Corbino wished to create a research center for
the new field of nuclear physics and chose Fermi to head it. Under
Fermi's guidance, this center situated at Via Panisperna in Rome,
instituted the technique of bombarding the nuclei of atoms with
neutrons and made fundamental discoveries during the 1930s. During
this period, the Fermi group discovered and patented "slow
neutrons," much more effective in creating changes in the
atomic nucleus. In 1934, the group split the uranium nucleus,
although it did not recognize that it had discovered fission.
By 1938, the Rome group had split. Mussolini's
foreign policy had become more radical with the invasion of Ethiopia
and Italy's adherence to the Axis, Corbino had died, and the Fascists
had passed the racial laws. Fermi, whose wife and several collaborators
were Jewish, left the country. After collecting his Nobel Prize
in Stockholm, Fermi went to a job at Columbia University. With
the theoretical explanation of fission by Lise Meitner in 1939,
Fermi believed it was possible to create a controlled chain reaction,
and he was the first to accomplish this feat in Chicago on December
2, 1942. This event was crucial for the development of the Atomic
and Hydrogen bombs and for nuclear reactors. Fermi was a key member
of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bomb. After
World War II, Fermi held essential positions on commissions studying
the use of atomic energy. A full professor at the University of
Chicago, Fermi devoted himself to research until his untimely
death from stomach cancer on November 29, 1954.
A superb teacher, Fermi is remembered not only
for his many fundamental discoveries but for establishment of
schools of physics by his students in Europe, the United States,
the Soviet Union, and Latin America. During the centennial of
his birth, celebrations will be held in Italian cities that were
important for his career and, in the United States, at Columbia
University, and the universities of Chicago and California (Los
Angeles).
*Spencer M. Di Scala is professor of History at the University
of Massachusetts Boston, which also named him research professor
in 1997. He received his Ph. D. degree at Columbia University
and previously taught at the University of Kentucky. He has published
five books and over 150 journal, newspaper, and encyclopedia articles.
His Italy: From Revolution to Republic, 1700 to the Present (Boulder:
Westview Press, 1998), a selection of the History Book club will
soon be going into a third edition. He is finishing a book on
Europe in the Twentieth Century and is currently working on a
biography of Enrico Fermi