. . . In 1926, Enrico Fermi became a tenured professor at the University of Rome and in the same year developed his second important theory: a theory that explains the emission of beta particles (electrons) from radioactive elements. Fermi used the newly postulated particle, the neutrino, for energy conservation and introduced the concept ofthe weak nuclear force to explain the beta decay. This force became known as one of the four fundamental forces in the universe. (The others are gravity, electromagnetic force, and the strong nuclear force.) The characteristic constant for the weak force is now known asFermi's constant.

After getting a secure job at the University of Rome, Fermi married Laura Capon on July 19, 1928, and they had two children. This was a very productive period in Fermi's life. His friend and former colleague Franco Rosetti had joined him in 1927. With Fermi's graduate students, Edoardo Amaldi and Emilio Segre, they formed a research team. Their work led to Fermi's mostimportant discovery, the artificial radioactivity induced by neutrons. Fermi realized that neutrons, being neutral in charge, make good projectiles to bombard a target atomic nucleus. Fermi embarked on a detailed and careful study of neutron-induced radioactivity in various elements and discovered a number of new forms of these elements (isotopes) that are artificially radioactive. Fermi and his team published ten papers in four years. This systematic work ultimately garnered a Nobel Prize in Physics for Fermi, in 1938.

During these experiments, Fermi also discovered a surprising result. When he slowed down the neutrons by passing them through a hydrogenous matter, such as paraffin, radioactivity increased significantly. The slow neutrons seemed to interact with a nucleus much better than fast neutrons. This discovery proved to be of enormous significance for Fermi's subsequent work on sustained nuclear chain reaction and the creation of an atomic bomb.

Meanwhile, the political situation in Italy was becoming tense: As World War II approached, the Jewish community faced increasing restrictions. Fermi's wife was Jewish, and the couple decided to immigrate to the United States. After Fermi received the Nobel Prize in Sweden, he and Laura, along with their two children, embarked on their journey to a new world. They reached the United States on January 2, 1939, and Fermi started teaching at Columbia University in New York.

Fermi's major effort in the United States was to produce the first controlled chain reaction through nuclear fission. During his research at the University of Rome on artificial radioactivity induced by neutrons, Fermi had bombarded the element of the highest atomic number then known, uranium. His research team expected to produce transuranic elements (elements with greater atomic numbers) through artificial radioactivity. What really happened was that the heavy uranium nucleus split into two, a process called nuclear fission. Fermi, unfortunately, did not realize this during his experiments in 1935, and this very important process was discovered independently by another group in Germany three years later. The discovery of nuclear fission and chain reactions became enormously important in the context of World War II, started in Europe around that time.

Fermi started working on producing a controlled chain reaction in 1939 at Columbia University and then moved to the University of Chicago in 1942, where the first sustained nuclear chain reaction was produced on December 2 under his leadership. Around this time, the United States entered the war, and the development of an atomic bomb became a high priority. In 1944, Fermi moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, to become an associate director in the Manhattan Project, which successfully produced the atomic bomb in 1945. The use of this bomb against Japan in August, 1945, brought the war to an end.

Soon after, Fermi returned to the University of Chicago to continue his teaching and research. After nine productive years, he died on November 28, 1954, from cancer. Only one month before his untimely death, Fermi received a special twenty-five-thousand-dollar award from the Atomic Energy Commission.

Fermi was one of the top physicists of the twentieth century. His studies on the statistical group behavior of fermions and his theory of beta decay have led to tremendous progress in atomic and nuclear physics. Every atom in this world contains fermions, which include electrons, protons, and neutrons. Hence, the Fermi-Dirac statistics have added to our understanding of the world at a deep, subatomic level. A clear understanding of atomic structure, in turn, has made possible the development of such advancements as semiconductors, lasers, and spectral studies.

Fermi's study of neutron-induced artificial radioactivity also led to the discovery of several new radioactive isotopes. These "radioisotopes" are now widely used in medicine, agriculture, industry, and research.

Fermi's success in producing the first controlled nuclear chain reaction had the greatest impact on the lives of people, leading to alternative sources of energy, powerful nuclear weapons, and a variety of by-products.

Not only a brilliant physician, Fermi was also a respected teacher and colleague. After his death, an award inaugurated by the Atomic Energy Commission and given to Fermi was renamed the Fermi Prize with an increased value of $100,000. There is the great monument, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), near Chicago. In 1955, the year after his death, the new radioactive element of atomic number 100 was named fermium in his honor.

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