Who Is Enrico Fermi? Age, Biography and Wiki
Enrico Fermi was born on September 29, 1901, in Rome, Italy, and passed away on November 28, 1954. He is renowned for his contributions to nuclear physics and is celebrated for creating the first nuclear reactor, known as the Chicago Pile-1. Fermi's work laid the groundwork for modern nuclear energy and quantum physics. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1944, contributing significantly to the Manhattan Project during World War II.
In 2025, Fermi is remembered not just for his scientific achievements but also for his intellectual prowess and his influence on future generations of physicists.
| Occupation | Presidents |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | September 29, 1901 |
| Age | 53 Years |
| Birth Place | Rome, Kingdom of Italy |
| Horoscope | Libra |
| Country | Italy |
| Date of death | 28 November, 1954 |
| Died Place | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Popularity
Enrico Fermi's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific measurements regarding Fermi's height and weight are not abundantly documented, he was typically portrayed as being of average height for his era and physique. During his lifetime, Fermi was noted for his sharp intellect and focus rather than physical appearance.
In September 1920, Fermi was admitted to the physics department. Since there were only three students in the department—Fermi, Rasetti, and Nello Carrara—Puccianti let them freely use the laboratory for whatever purposes they chose.
Fermi decided that they should research X-ray crystallography, and the three worked to produce a Laue photograph—an X-ray photograph of a crystal. During 1921, his third year at the university, Fermi published his first scientific works in the Italian journal Nuovo Cimento.
The first was entitled "On the dynamics of a rigid system of electrical charges in translational motion" (Sulla dinamica di un sistema rigido di cariche elettriche in moto traslatorio).
A sign of things to come was that the mass was expressed as a tensor—a mathematical construct commonly used to describe something moving and changing in three-dimensional space. In classical mechanics, mass is a scalar quantity, but in relativity, it changes with velocity.
The second paper was "On the electrostatics of a uniform gravitational field of electromagnetic charges and on the weight of electromagnetic charges" (Sull'elettrostatica di un campo gravitazionale uniforme e sul peso delle masse elettromagnetiche).
Using general relativity, Fermi showed that a charge has a weight equal to U/c2, where U is the electrostatic energy of the system, and c is the speed of light.
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
Enrico Fermi married Laura Capon, a fellow scientist, on 13th June 1928. The couple had three children: Maria, Giulio, and Nella. Their marriage was known to be a strong partnership, both personally and professionally, as they collaborated on various scientific endeavors. Fermi's family life was deeply intertwined with his career, making them an integral part of his legacy.
As of 2025, discussions surrounding Fermi often reflect on his role as a devoted father and husband, and his relationships within the scientific community, rather than dating or relationship status which is irrelevant given his historical significance.
Fermi left Italy in 1938 to escape new Italian racial laws that affected his Jewish wife, Laura Capon. He emigrated to the United States, where he worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II.
Fermi led the team at the University of Chicago that designed and built Chicago Pile-1, which went critical on 2 December 1942, demonstrating the first human-created, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
He was on hand when the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge, Tennessee went critical in 1943, and when the B Reactor at the Hanford Site did so the next year. At Los Alamos, he headed F Division, part of which worked on Edward Teller's thermonuclear "Super" bomb.
He was present at the Trinity test on 16 July 1945, the first test of a full nuclear bomb explosion, where he used his Fermi method to estimate the bomb's yield.
Net Worth and Salary
Although financial records for historical figures like Enrico Fermi are rare, it is generally accepted that his contributions to science, particularly to the nuclear field and his role in the Manhattan Project, would position him as one of the more significant earners among scientists of his time. Estimates of his net worth during his lifetime would have primarily stemmed from his salary as a professor, but exact figures are not documented. In 2025, his influence is acknowledged far beyond monetary value—measured in the impacts of his work and legacy.
Career, Business and Investments
Enrico Fermi's career was marked by groundbreaking research that significantly advanced the field of physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work on neutron irradiation and the discovery of nuclear reactions, which contributed to nuclear fission.
Fermi's work extended from academia to government projects, including his pivotal role in the Manhattan Project that culminated in the development of atomic bombs during World War II. His intellect and innovative thinking led to the establishment of nuclear energy as a sustainable power source.
In 1923–1924, Fermi spent a semester studying under Max Born at the University of Göttingen, where he met Werner Heisenberg and Pascual Jordan. Fermi then studied in Leiden with Paul Ehrenfest from September to December 1924 on a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation obtained through the intercession of the mathematician Vito Volterra.
Here Fermi met Hendrik Lorentz and Albert Einstein, and became friends with Samuel Goudsmit and Jan Tinbergen.
From January 1925 to late 1926, Fermi taught mathematical physics and theoretical mechanics at the University of Florence, where he teamed up with Rasetti to conduct a series of experiments on the effects of magnetic fields on mercury vapour.
He also participated in seminars at the Sapienza University of Rome, giving lectures on quantum mechanics and solid state physics. While giving lectures on the new quantum mechanics based on the remarkable accuracy of predictions of the Schrödinger equation, Fermi would often say, "It has no business to fit so well!"
Social Network
Given Fermi’s historical status, he does not have a contemporary social media presence. However, the legacy of his work is represented across various scientific communities online, including forums and educational platforms. Scholars, students, and enthusiasts continue to share and discuss his theories, research, and contributions to physics, often through academic networks and educational social media groups.
Fermi submitted his thesis, "A theorem on probability and some of its applications" (Un teorema di calcolo delle probabilità ed alcune sue applicazioni), to the Scuola Normale Superiore in July 1922, and received his laurea at the unusually young age of 20. The thesis was on X-ray diffraction images.
Theoretical physics was not yet considered a discipline in Italy, and the only thesis that would have been accepted was experimental physics. For this reason, Italian physicists were slow to embrace the new ideas like relativity coming from Germany.
Since Fermi was quite at home in the lab doing experimental work, this did not pose insurmountable problems for him.
Education
Fermi was a prodigious student, earning his degree in physics from the University of Pisa in 1922. His academic journey was marked by excellence, and he went on to study under great physicists, contributing to numerous significant discoveries during his time in various institutions like the University of Rome and Columbia University.
In conclusion, while Enrico Fermi's life ended in 1954, his legacy continues to resonate within the scientific community and beyond, making him a pivotal figure in both the history of science and in modern educational contexts. His contributions remain relevant as we navigate the complexities of nuclear physics and energy in our current era.
He was the third child of Alberto Fermi, a division head in the Ministry of Railways, and Ida de Gattis, an elementary school teacher. His sister, Maria, was two years older, his brother Giulio a year older. After the two boys were sent to a rural community to be wet nursed, Enrico rejoined his family in Rome when he was two and a half.
Although he was baptized a Catholic in accordance with his grandparents' wishes, his family was not particularly religious; Enrico was an agnostic throughout his adult life. As a young boy, he shared the same interests as his brother Giulio, building electric motors and playing with electrical and mechanical toys.
Giulio died during an operation on a throat abscess in 1915 and Maria died in an airplane crash near Milan in 1959.
