Landmarks of Human Thought I - Catalog - Page 38
Enrico
Fermi
Test
Exponential Pile
U.S. Patent No. 2,780,595
Inducted in 1976
Born Sept. 29, 1901 - Died Nov. 28, 1954
W
hile studying the creation of artificially
radioactive isotopes in the 1930s, Enrico
Fermi became the first physicist to split the
atom. His later research pioneered nuclear
power generation.
Born in Rome, Italy, Fermi graduated from the
University of Pisa in 1922, became a lecturer at the
University of Florence for two years, and then a
professor of theoretical physics at Rome. In 1934 he
perfected his theory of beta ray emission in
radioactivity, and went on to study the creation of
artificially radioactive isotopes through neutron
bombardment. His bombardment of uranium with
slow neutrons caused reactions which were found
later to be atomic fission.
With researcher Leo Szilard, he began work, first at
Columbia then at the University of Chicago, on
construction of an atomic pile (CP-1) which would
make possible the controlled release of nuclear
energy. Fermi processed the findings from the
experiments with CP-1 into several patent
applications, the first of which was U.S. No.
2,780,595, filed May 04, 1944. Transferred for a
time to the Los Alamos, New Mexico atomic bomb
laboratory, Fermi returned to Chicago in 1945 as a
professor at the Institute for Nuclear Studies and in
the same year became a United States citizen.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in
1938 for his developments in harnessing nuclear
power. Fermi is considered one of the most
important architects of the nuclear age.
Reference: National Inventors Hall of Fame (2024, 23. February)
Inductee: Enrico Fermi.
NIHF. https://www.invent.org/inductees/enrico-fermi
