“architect of the nuclear age”
3 min readJan 31, 2016
Enrico Fermi was an Italian physicist, who created the world’s first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the “architect of the nuclear age”
Born: September 29, 1901, Rome, Italy
Died: November 28, 1954, Chicago, Illinois, United States
He was one of the few physicists to excel both theoretically and experimentally. Fermi held several patents related to the use of nuclear power, and was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and the discovery of transuranic elements. He made significant contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics.
Known for
Demonstrating first self-sustaining Nuclear chain reaction
Fermi–Dirac statistics
Fermi paradox
Fermi theory of beta decay
Notable awards
Matteucci Medal (1926) — Nobel Prize (1938)
Hughes Medal (1942) — Medal for Merit (1946)
Franklin Medal (1947) — ForMemRS (1950)
Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science (1950)
Rumford Prize (1953)-Max Planck Medal (1954)
In 1926, Fermi discovered the statistical laws, nowadays known as the “Fermi statistics,”
In 1934, he evolved the beta-decay theory, coalescing previous work on radiation theory with Pauli’s idea of the neutrino. Following the discovery by Curie and Joliot of artificial radioactivity that year, Fermi demonstrated that nuclear transformation occurs in almost every element subjected to neutron bombardment. This work led to the discovery of slow neutrons, which led to the discovery of nuclear fission and the production of elements lying beyond what was until then the Periodic Table.
