Enrico Fermi (* September 29th, 1901 in Rome) is an Italian nuclear physicist.
At the early age of 17 years, he began his studies of Physics in Pisa, which he finished in 1922 magna cum laude. In 1923, he was the first to point out that hidden inside the Einstein equation (E = mc²) was an enormous amount of nuclear potential energy to be exploited. In January 1925, Fermi initially became Professor of Mathematics at Florenz. In 1926, he became Professor for theoretical Physics at the University of Rome (La Sapienza), the newly founded chair for theoretical Physics, which he had until 1938.
In 1934, Fermi turned to Experimental physics. In the same year, he published his Theory of Beta decay („Fermi interaction“). As soon as 1933, he had coined the term "Neutrino" for one of the particles involved in Beta decay. In 1938, Fermi received the Nobel prize for Physics for his work. In the same year, he left fascist Italy because of the new antisemitic laws, and went to the USA.
He immediately was hired by the Columbia University in New York and continued his scientific work, conducting the first nuclear fission experiment in the United States on January 25th, 1939. He was among the first to warn military leaders about the potential impact of nuclear energy, giving a lecture on the subject at the Navy Department on March 18th, 1939.
Since 1928, he was married to Laura Capon (* 1907) and had two Kids with her: Nella (* 1931) and Giulio (* 1936).