The Story of a Man Called ‘F’
By Hamzah Jameel,
Staff Writer
Yes. His name was ‘F,’ but with his geniusness, he probably never got an ‘F’ at school. Even before coming to the United States, Enrico Fermi had an interesting story to tell. Beginning a cheerful life out in the countryside, going through a tragedy, becoming a physicist, writing a book, and finally earning the Nobel Prize, his phase of life during this period was full of achievements.
Born in Rome on the twenty-ninth of September, 1901, Fermi enjoyed a cheerful childhood with his brother, Giulio, but ended it with an awful tragedy. Enrico and his brother were both raised in the countryside by a wet nurse. When Enrico was two and a half years old, he returned to his family in the city. He and his brother were the closest friends, always exploring and investigating nature, testing electric motors, and trying to understand how the world around them worked. Tragically, his brother died of anesthesia from a simple surgery for an abscess of his throat, and Enrico was devastated. His father’s colleague, Ingegner Adolfo Amidei, helped him overcome this ordeal.
Not only did Amidei support him emotionally, but he also played a role in shaping his academic path. He often lent him books in mathematics and physics, which Enrico read carefully and returned them fully solved. Before Enrico’s college graduation, Amidei and Enrico tried to persuade his parents to apply for the Reale Scuola Normale Superiore in the city of Pisa instead of going to a university in Italy’s capital, Rome. Amedi and Enrico won.
In 1922, Fermi earned his doctoral degree in physics while he was studying at the Reale Scuola Normale Superiore. Fermi showed no difficulty in his studies; his teachers even benefited from his earlier acquired knowledge. Soon after receiving his doctoral degree, Fermi went back to Rome and then headed to Gottingen where he spent a seven month period with several renowned scientists including Max Born and Werner Heisenberg. The former was a German physicist and mathematician, and the latter was a theoretical physicist and a pioneer in quantum mechanics. Both of them enriched his knowledge. After that, Fermi returned back to Rome to teach fundamental mathematics at a university.
In 1934, while in Rome, Fermi published the book Radioactivity Induced by Neutron Bombardment where he discussed his own experiments and studies on the subject. His work was based on the discovery of artificial radioactivity by Pierre Joliot-Curie, a French researcher. In these studies, Fermi certainly showed off his qualities of precision, insight, willingness, and determination as he was committed in doing his job. The book itself shows the accuracy of his work.
His studies on radioactivity induced by neutron bombardment, and “his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation,” as well as “his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons” led Fermi to the honor of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. With the intention of going to Stockholm, where the prize was awarded, and never returning back to Italy, his family was granted by the Nobel Prize organization the opportunity to leave to the safety of New York. Why is that? By 1938, Mussolini, Italy’s dictator became a partner to Hitler, and launched an anti-Semitic campaign against a thousand Jewish Italians. His wife, Laura, had a Jewish background and, for her safety, they left to the United States where Fermi continued his research.
From his birth place in Rome where his brother’s tragedy took place, through his days in the Scuola Normale, the publishing of his book on neutron bombardment, and climaxing with the winning of the Nobel Prize, Fermi pioneered through the new field in physics. He stood out as a legacy for young scientists to follow.
Works Cited
Garwin, Richard L. "Enrico Fermi and Ethical Problems in Scientific Research." Federation of American Scientists. 19 Oct. 2001. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://www.fas.org/rlg/011019-fermi.htm>
"The Nobel Prize in Physics 1938". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 19 Jan 2015. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1938/>