born Sept. 29, 1901, Rome, Italy died Nov. 28, 1954, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
![Italian-born physicist Enrico Fermi explaining a problem in physics, c. 1950.[Credits : National Archives]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/01/115001-003-8BA9A8AC.gif)
![Enrico Fermi constructed the world’s first nuclear reactor on the campus of the University of …[Credits : Acquired from Vast Video]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/92/86592-003-5DE0E871.gif)
Italian-born American scientist who was one of the chief architects of the nuclear age. He developed the mathematical statistics required to clarify a large class of subatomic phenomena, explored nuclear transformations caused by neutrons, and directed the first controlled chain reaction involving nuclear fission. He was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize for Physics, and the Enrico Fermi Award of the U.S. Department of Energy is given in his honour. Fermilab, the National Accelerator Laboratory, in Illinois, is named for him, as is fermium, element number 100.
Fermi’s father, Alberto Fermi, was a chief inspector of the government railways; his mother was Ida de Gattis, a schoolteacher. In 1918 Enrico Fermi won a scholarship to the University of Pisa’s distinguished Scuola Normale Superiore, where his knowledge of recent physics benefited even the professors. After receiving a doctorate in 1922, Fermi used fellowships from the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction and the Rockefeller Foundation to study in Germany under Max Born, at the University of Göttingen, and in The Netherlands under Paul Ehrenfest, at the State University of Leiden.
Italian-born-physicist-Enrico-Fermi-explaining-a-problem-in-physicsItalian-born physicist Enrico Fermi explaining a problem in physics, c. 1950.[Credits : National Archives]
Enrico-Fermi-at-the-controls-of-the-synchrocyclotron-at-theEnrico Fermi at the controls of the synchrocyclotron at the University of Chicago, 1951.[Credits : © Bettmann/Corbis]
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