Enrico Fermi Biography

Early Life and Education

Born in Rome, Italy on September 29, 1901, Enrico Fermi was born into a well-sized family. Enrico was the third child of his father Albert and mother Ida de Gattis Fermi. Enrico was pushed to learning at an early age due to his mother’s influence towards education. Fermi’s passion towards physics was most likely a result of a very traumatic family tragedy. When Enrico was 14, his older brother, Giulio, died very suddenly. Enrico was distraught and devastated. To console Enrico, his parents encouraged him to focus on learning and education. “He came across a couple of physics books written a half-century earlier and was totally enthralled” (Biography.com, n.d.). Growing up and through his teens, Enrico Fermi performed science and physics experiments with his friends. One interesting experiment that they performed was testing the density of Rome’s water supply. In 1918, Enrico won a scholarship to the Scuola Normale Superiore University in Pisa, Italy. His entrance essay was so impressive that he was quickly bumped up to the doctoral program. Later, he graduated with honors in 1922.

Personal Life and Career

In 1928, Enrico Fermi married the daughter of a respected Jewish family in Rome. This woman's name was Laura Capon. They had one son, Giulio, named after Enrico’s brother, and a daughter named Nella. As for his profession, Fermi was elected professor of theoretical physics at the University of Rome. “In 1934, Fermi began his most important work with the atom, discovering that nuclear transformation could occur in nearly every element. One of the elements' atoms he split was uranium. This work led to the discovery of slowing down neutrons, which led to nuclear fission and the production of new elements beyond the traditional Periodic Table” (Biography.com, n.d.). Enrico’s first major award was the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. This award was a huge lifesaver for Fermi’s family, as Italy had recently passed anti-Jewish laws, endangering his family. This award would later be a road that would safely harbor them in America.

Contributions to Nuclear Physics and the Manhattan Project

Safely living in the United States, Enrico Fermi was appointed a professor of physics at New York's Columbia University. While studying at the university, Enrico discovered that if uranium neutrons were emitted into fissioning uranium, they could split other uranium atoms, setting off a large chain reaction that would emit huge amounts of energy. These experiments led to the very first controlled nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942, in Chicago. During World War Two, Fermi was recruited as a high leader in the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was a large group of highly educated scientists and physicists that worked to create an atomic bomb. In 1944, Enrico Fermi and his wife became legal American citizens.

The Manhattan Project and Its Impact

For the Manhattan Project, the total bill was around 2 billion dollars of research and development. The Manhattan Project also employed over 120,000 American citizens. In this task of creating an atomic bomb, secrecy was one of the most important things to have. If the Nazi Germans or the Japanese knew about this weapon, there would have been a great turn in the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill both agreed to keep the United States’ current ally, Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union, in the dark. To maintain the secrecy of the project in America, only a small circle of lead scientists out of the 120,000 workers knew the intentions and uses of the bomb and its construction. Even though the Axis powers did not know of this plan, a Soviet spy named Klaus Fuchs infiltrated the circle of scientists. On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was tested at the Trinity bomb site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The nuclear bomb was affixed in a thin 100-foot tower and dropped at dawn. No one was prepared for the result.

When the bomb dropped, no one expected what happened next. “A blinding flash visible for 200 miles lit up the morning sky. A mushroom cloud reached 40,000 feet, blowing out windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away” (UShistory.org, n.d.). When the mushroom cloud floated back down to earth, it created a half-mile wide crater metamorphosing sand into glass. A completely false cover-up story was created to continue to hide the knowledge of the creation of the atomic bomb. This cover-up was that an ammunition dump exploded in the desert.

Post-War Career and Legacy

After World War II, Enrico was highly nominated for the General Advisory Committee for the Atomic Energy Commission. In October 1949, the committee gathered to discuss the idea of a hydrogen bomb. Fermi was impressed and amazed at this idea, but later co-authored an addendum to the committee’s report criticizing the idea of development. When President Truman directed the order of the development of the bomb, ignoring his serious warnings, Enrico traveled to Los Alamos, New Mexico to perform research on why the construction of such a bomb was impossible. Fermi's contributions to nuclear physics were pivotal, and his insights have shaped the field for generations.

Final Years and Death

In 1954, Enrico Fermi was diagnosed with incurable stomach cancer and spent the last few months of his life in Chicago. On November 28, 1954, he passed away in his sleep at his home in Chicago, Illinois. His legacy continues to influence both scientific thought and ethical debates in nuclear physics and beyond.

References

• Biography.com. (n.d.). Enrico Fermi. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/scientist/enrico-fermi
• UShistory.org. (n.d.). The Manhattan Project. Retrieved from https://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp