Enrico Fermi is known as the father of nuclear reactor. He is so called because he was the first person who discovered the chain reactions in nuclear fission. This great physicist was born in Rome, Italy on September 26, 1901. He was a very brilliant student. At the age of 21, he obtained his Ph.D. degree in the field of X -rays from the university of Pisa, Italy.

In 1927, he was appointed a lecturer of physics in Rome University. He was so brilliant that he was elected a member of Italian Academy in 1929. This is the highest Italian honour in academics. In 1934 after a 10 year arduous research he made a fundamental discovery in the field of physics. He discovered that when an element is bombarded by a slow moving neutron, it becomes radioactive and starts emitting radiations. In this process, one element changes into the other element. In 1933, he discovered a fundamental particle named neutrino. Fermi produced 80 new artificial nuclei by neutron bombardment.

At that time, chaos was prevailing in Italy as the country was under the dictatorship of Mussolini. This directly affected Fermi because his wife was a Jew. Fortunately he was invited for a lecture at Columbia University, USA. He went to America along with his family and never returned to Italy. In 1930, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. In 1939 he was appointed as a professor of Physics at the Columbia University and became a US citizen in 1944.

One of the incidents of Fermi’s life is very memorable. It shows how he was totally absorbed in his experimental work. Once Fermi was on his way to an adjoining room to bring an instrument for an experiment. Meanwhile a stranger came to meet him. On coming  across professor  Fermi, the visitor told him that he wanted to see Professor Fermi. Professor Fermi’s mind was so much involved in his experiment that he asked the man to wait for some time in the room, assuring to send the professor soon. After this, he went to his room, finished his experiment and come back to his stranger saying, “ I am Fermi. What can I do for you? The visitor was surprised at Fermi’s devotion to science.

In Columbia University, he started his work on the controlled nuclear chain reactions. He succeeded in splitting uranium nuclei by the bombardment of neutrons. On this basis in 1942 after several years of hard work he designed the first nuclear reactor in Chicago.  In  this  reactor, he generated energy by nuclear reaction. This thrilled the entire scientific world. People  started saying “The Italian navigator has landed in a New World.”

Mean While in Berlin Otto Hahn and Fritz Strass Mann were trying to prove that Fermi was in fact splitting uranium nucleus into too much higher atoms by his neutron bombardment. This phenomenon was called nuclear fission. A group of Fermi’s colleagues persuaded Albert Einstein to write to President Roosevelt, drawing his attention to the fact that extremely powerful bombs of a new type can be made in this way and hinted that the Germans might be already engaged in the development of the bomb. The President gave his approval and immediately sanctioned a large sum of money to enable Fermi’s team to begin secret work on the development of an atom bomb. After Fermi successfully completed Manhattan project he went to Los Alamos, New Mexico to work on the actual atomic bomb. The bomb was tested successfully on 16th July 1945. These were soon dropped by America on two Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. This brought an end to the prolonged war.

After World War II, Fermi joined the faculty at the University of Chicago where the institute for nuclear studies was named after him. He was considered as a gifted teacher and  a great research scientist. He wrote many text books  on various aspects of physics.

In the recognition of his scientific achievements, Fermi was awarded the Medal of Merit by the Congress of the United States on 19th March 1946. He was at the peak of his fame when he died at the age of 53 in the year 1954. In his honour an element called Fermium has been named after him. An award called Fermi Award was instituted in his honour and is awarded for outstanding work in science in USA.

Today in many countries around the world nuclear reactors have been set up for isotope production and power generation. All these reactors, although slightly modified are based on the fundamental principles formulated by Enrico Fermi. Nuclear energy which caused furor during World War II is now being used for many peaceful purposes of human living.