Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi 1943-49.jpg
Fermi in 1943
Born(1901-09-29)29 September 1901
Rome, Kingdom of Italy
Died28 November 1954(1954-11-28)(aged 53)
Chicago, Illinois, US
Citizenship
  • Italian (1901–1944)
  • American (1944–1954)
Alma materScuola Normale Superiore of Pisa
Known for
  • Demonstrating first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
  • Fermion
  • Fermi gas
  • Fermi–Dirac statistics
  • Fermi's golden rule
  • Fermi paradox
  • Fermi method
  • Thomas–Fermi model
  • Thomas–Fermi screening
  • Fermi theory of beta decay
  • Chandrasekhar–Fermi method
Spouse(s)Laura Capon Fermi
Children2
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)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
Institutions
  • Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa
  • University of Göttingen
  • Leiden University
  • University of Florence
  • Sapienza University of Rome
  • Columbia University
  • University of Chicago
Academic advisors
  • Luigi Puccianti
  • Max Born
  • Paul Ehrenfest
Doctoral students
  • Harold Agnew
  • Edoardo Amaldi
  • Owen Chamberlain
  • Geoffrey Chew
  • Mildred Dresselhaus
  • Jerome Friedman
  • Richard Garwin
  • Marvin Goldberger
  • Tsung-Dao Lee
  • Ettore Majorana
  • Arthur Rosenfeld
  • Emilio Segrè
  • Sam Treiman
Other notable students
  • Jack Steinberger
  • Chen Ning Yang
Signature
Enrico Fermi signature.svg