V3401

Enrico Fermi

Physicist

Cover Announcement 

ENRICO  FERMI

Enrico was born on September 29, 1901 in Rome, Italy. He became a U.S. citizen on July 11, 1944. Receiving a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pisa in 1922, he taught at the University of Rome where he became the first physicist to split the atom. In 1938 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics — after which he immigrated to America with his wife, Laura (who was Jewish) and two children to escape anti-Semitic persecution in Italy.

In 1939, Fermi joined the faculty at Columbia University, where he taught and conducted his experiments with uranium. In 1942, his work was transferred to the University of Chicago, where he supervised the design and assembly of the first nuclear reactor as part of World War II's top-secret Manhattan Project.

In 1944, Enrico moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico to assist in directing the project's scientific team there. He was present when the first atomic bomb was tested in the desert on July 16, 1945. The backdrop on my hand painted cachet shows this multi-colored blast, which changed the history of the world. A profile portrait of the "Father of Nuclear Energy" is in the foreground.

At the end of the war, Fermi accepted an invitation to teach physics at the University of Chicago. On November 16, 1954, he received a special presidential award from Dwight Eisenhower, and twelve days later he passed away. In 1955, the Institute for Nuclear Studies was renamed the Enrico Fermi Institute in his honor. A final tribute to this brilliant scientist was the establishment in 1956 of the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award. It is the U.S. government's oldest science and technology award, and it will always serve as a national memorial to physicist Enrico Fermi. Collins #V3401 - $12.25.