Fer·mi  (fěr'mē)  Italian-born American physicist. He won a 1938 Nobel Prize for his work on artificial radioactivity caused by neutron bombardment. In 1942, at the University of Chicago, he produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction. |
An American physicist of the twentieth century, born in Italy. Fermi built the first nuclear reactor in the 1940s under the stands of a football field at the University of Chicago.
| Fermi (fěr'mē) Pronunciation Key
Italian-born American physicist who won a 1938 Nobel Prize for his research on neutrons. In 1942, with Leo Szilard, Fermi built the world's first nuclear reactor. He also discovered over 40 new isotopes, including the element fermium, which is named for him. |