1901-1954. Italian-born US physicist, who
proved the existence of new radioactive
elements produced by bombardment with
neutrons, and discovered nuclear reactions
produced by low-energy neutrons. Nobel prize
1938. Born in Rome, he was professor of
theoretical physics there from 1926 to 1938.
He was professor at Columbia University, New
York, from 1939 to 1942 and from 1946 at
Chicago. In 1954, the US Atomic Energy
Commission made a special award to him for
outstanding work in nuclear physics; these
annual awards have subsequently been known as
Fermi awards.