(1901-1954) Italian-born US physicist who proved the existence of new radioactive elements produced by bombardment with neutrons, and discovered nuclear reactions produced by low-energy neutrons. He took part in the Manhattan Project to construct an atomic bomb. His theoretical work included study of the weak nuclear force, one of the fundamental forces of nature. Nobel Prize 1938.
Fermi's experimental work on beta-decay in radioactive materials provided further evidence for the existence of the neutrino, as predicted by Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli. At the University of Chicago, Fermi built the first nuclear reactor 1942. This was the basis for studies leading to the atomic bomb and nuclear energy.
Fermi was born in Rome and studied at Pisa; Göttingen, Germany; and Leiden, the Netherlands. He was professor of theoretical physics at Rome 1926–38, when the rise of Fascism in Italy caused him to emigrate to the US. He was professor at Columbia University, New York, 1939–42, and from 1946 at the University of Chicago.
With British physicist Paul Dirac, Fermi studied the quantum statistics of fermion particles, which are named after him. + prikaži više