Fermi, Enrico

Lead Author: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Article Topics: Environmental chemistry and Energy people
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Tom Lawrence (other articles)
Last Updated: September 10, 2008
Enrico Fermi.
Enlarge
Enrico Fermi.

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), an Italian-American physicist who played a key role in the development of the first atomic bomb. He was one of the leaders of the team of physicists on the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government's program to develop the atomic bomb. In 1926, Fermi discovered the statistical laws, now called Fermi-Dirac statistics, that govern the particles subject to the Pauli exclusion principle; such particles are called 'fermions' in Fermi's honor. Throughout his career, Fermi developed the mathematical statistics required to clarify a large class of subatomic phenomena, discovered neutron-induced radioactivity, and directed the first controlled chain reaction involving nuclear fission. This demonstration of nuclear fission took place in Chicago on December 2, 1942 in a volleyball field situated beneath the University of Chicago's sports stadium. Fermi was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Further Reading

Citation
Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Tom Lawrence (Topic Editor). 2008. "Fermi, Enrico." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth October 2, 2006; Last revised September 10, 2008; Retrieved October 11, 2008]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Fermi,_Enrico>
Editing this Article
EoE Authors can click here to access this article within the editor wiki

If you are an expert, but not yet an Author, click here
CITE
EMAIL
PRINT