Enrico Fermi 1901-1954 Have you ever heard of Enrico Fermi? My guess is you probably haven't. Well, Enrico Fermi was the man who first controlled nuclear fission, allowing the atomic bomb to be built. Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy. Fermi's family was a farming family. In 1915, Enrico's brother, Guilio, died. The two boys were very close. Fermi became depressed. Like some other famous inventors, Fermi was not a good student. However, when he was in his teens, he began to study physics outside of school. A friend of Enrico's father, Ingegner Alimidei, began to see Enrico's gift for physics. He began to give him problems, making them harder and harder. Soon, Enrico, a now promising student, got a scholarship to Reale Scuola Normale Superior. Fermi discovered that with all the problems he received, he was ahead of the rest of the class. By the end of the school year, Fermi was learning Einstein's, Theory of Relativity. When Fermi reached the age of twenty, he got a degree as Doctor of Physics. In 1926 Fermi settled down as full Professor of Physics at University of Rome. He began to write papers about the atom. In Rome, Fermi joined two of his friends, Emilio Segre and Franco Rasetti, and developed a research and teaching group that was amazing. While he was in this group, he invented tiddlywinks. The three friends worked very hard to create artificial radiation. They tried many methods. Many of the elements produced artificial radiation. After many experiments Fermi discovered the 93rd element, Neptunium. Fermi didn't realize that he was actually witnessing nuclear fission. Every time Fermi did an experiment, he put aluminum foil in place. This kept him from noticing the nuclear fission. Many scientists began using Fermi's experiment, but since they put the foil in place, as Fermi did, they never knew what they were doing. Finally two Swiss scientists forgot to put the foil in place. They noticed something was wrong and that led to the discovery of nuclear fission. Fermi's work on the experiment led him to win the Nobel prize in 1938. Because of World War II, Fermi moved to the U. S. on January 2, 1939. He began to work at Columbia University. He formed a partnership with Niels Bohr. Fermi had to admit that the Germans were ahead in research on the atom. At first, the U.S. government couldn't supply Fermi with the right materials to continue his experiment. But in 1942, the government decided to continue research on the atomic bomb and so he was able to continue his experiments at the University of Chicago. While Fermi was experimenting, he discovered another element, plutonium. Finally, on December 2, 1942, in a secret laboratory under the football field at the University of Chicago, Fermi witnessed and controlled nuclear fission which led to the creation of the atomic bomb. On August 6, 1945, a lone B-29 dropped a single atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. This single bomb brought a quick end to World War II. An estimated 100,000 people died from the bomb. For more information on Fermi, go to the site Enrico Fermi: Physicist. Back up to the top