and#8220;If Laura Fermi is short on domestic candor, she makes up for it in excellent science-chronicling. Her accounts of Fermiand#8217;s critical experiments in Italy will delight the lay reader without horrifying the pure scientist.and#8221;
and#8220;Fermiand#8217;s biography by his wife is a polished, lively piece on the man who won the Nobel Prize for work in nuclear physics and who helped to make the atom bomb. Covering their life together through three decades and two continents, there are intimate pictures of the early teaching days in Rome in an increasingly fascistic Italy, of other scientists who were their friends, and of the years at Columbia, Chicago, and Los Alamos. Valuable.and#8221;
"The book will be of interest to those who knew Fermi and to younger physicists who still live with his scientific legacy, as well as to historians interested in the life and work of one of the most famous members of the Los Alamos generation."
"A lively collection of reminiscences about the greatest Italian scientist of the 20th century by students and collaborators such as Leo Szilard, T. D. Lee and Murray Gell-Mann. They knew him as 'the Pope', editor James Cronin informs us, because he was 'the supreme authority on all matters.'"
"This book will interest both specialists and general readers, as it provides valuable archive material and sketches of Fermi's life, as well as personal reminiscences from his former students and collaborators."
"This book, which describes Fermi's contributions to physics and the US period of his life, originated from a symposium that was held in Chicago in 2001 to commemorate the centenary of his birth. But it is not merely a volume of reminiscences. It combines essays, specially commissioned articles, as well as private material from Fermi's research notebooks, correspondence and speeches. Together the material highlights the breadth of his impact on physics. . . . What emerges from this book is the gratitude of so many extraordinary physicists to their master, who instilled in them a passion that has lasted a lifetime: the passion for physics."
In this absorbing account of life with the great atomic scientist Enrico Fermi, Laura Fermi tells the story of their emigration to the United States in the 1930sand#8212;part of the widespread movement of scientists from Europe to the New World that was so important to the development of the first atomic bomb. Combining intellectual biography and social history, Laura Fermi traces her husband's career from his childhood, when he taught himself physics, through his rise in the Italian university system concurrent with the rise of fascism, to his receipt of the Nobel Prize, which offered a perfect opportunity to flee the country without arousing official suspicion, and his odyssey to the United States.
Preface
Chapter 1 Biographical Introduction
Editor's comment
Emilio Segrandegrave; Biographical Introduction
Chapter 2 - Fermi and the Elucidation of Matter
Editor's comment
Frank Wilczek Fermi and the Elucidation of Matter
Chapter 3 Letters and a Speech Relating to the Development of Nuclear Energy
Editor's introductory comments
To Harry M. Durning, January 16, 1939
From George B. Pegram to S. C. Hooper, March 18, 1939
From Leo Szilard, July 3, 1939
From Leo Szilard, July 5, 1939
From Leo Szilard, July 8, 1939
To Leo Szilard, July 9, 1939
From Leo Szilard, July 11, 1939
From Vannevar Bush, August 15, 1941
From Harry S. Truman, August 11, 1950
Outline for the speech "The Genesis of the Nuclear Energy Project," January 30, 1954
Text of the speech "The Genesis of the Nuclear Energy Project," November 1955
Chapter 4 Correspondence between Fermi and Colleagues: Scientific, Political, Humorous
Editor's comments on letters
To James F. Byrnes, October 16, 1945
From C. N. Yang, January 5, 1950
To C. N. Yang, January 12, 1950
From Erwin Schrandouml;dinger, February 10, 1951
To Erwin Schrandouml;dinger, Februay 27, 1951
From Fred Reines and Clyde Cowan, October 4, 1952
To Fred Reines, October 8, 1952
To Dean G. Acheson, May 22, 1952
From Linus Pauling, June 16, 1952
From George Gamow, March 13, 1953
To George Gamow, March 24, 1953
From Samuel Goudsmit, March 11, 1953
To Samuel Goudsmit, March 24, 1953
From George Kistiakowsky, September 29, 1953
To George Kistiakowsky, September 30, 1953
From Arthur Compton, December 2, 1953
To Arthur Compton, December 14, 1953
From Owen Chamberlain, February 2, 1954
Chapter 5 Research and Teaching: Selections from the Archives
International House application, June 10, 1940
To Walter Bartky, December 3, 1945
Participants at the inauguration of the research institutes at the University of Chicago, August 1945
Staff of the Institute for Nuclear Studies members, 1950
Genesis of theory of cosmic ray acceleration, 1948-1949
To Hannes Alfvandeacute;n, December 24, 1948
Abstract for Fermi's paper on cosmic radiation, April 15, 1949
Comments by Herbert Anderson and Edward Teller on Fermi's paper on cosmic rays
Summary page from data book on meson-nucleon scattering, February 1952
Program for calculation of cyclotron orbits on the Maniac computer, 1951
Equations for a charged particle in a cylindrically symmetric magnetic field
The instruction set for the Maniac computer
Fermi's flowchart for a program to calculate the orbits emanating from a target
Notes for setting up the calculation of the orbits
Program for calculating initial direction cosines
Quantum mechanics exam, spring quarter 1954
Outline for the speech "The Future of Nuclear Physics," Rochester, January 10, 1952
Chapter 6 Reminiscences of Fermi's Faculty and Research Colleagues, 1945-1954
Richard Garwin Working with Fermi at Chicago and Postwar Los Alamos
Murray Gell-Mann No Shortage of Memories
Marvin Goldberger Enrico Fermi (1901-1954): The Complete Physicist
Roger Hildebrand Fermi's Classrooms
Darragh Nagle With Fermi at Columbia, Chicago, and Los Alamos
Valentine Telegdi Reminiscences of Enrico Fermi
Albert Wattenberg Fermi as My Chauffeur (Fermi at Argonne National Laboratory and Chicago, 1946-1948)
Courtenay Wright Fermi in Action
Chapter 7 Reminiscences of Fermi's Students, 1945-1954
Harold Agnew A Snapshot of My Interaction with Fermi
Owen Chamberlain A Brief Reminiscence of Enrico Fermi
Geoffrey Chew Personal Recollections from 1944-1948
George Farwell Reminiscences of Fermi
Uri Haber-Schaim Fermi in Varenna, Summer 1954
T. D. Lee Reminiscences of Chicago Days
Jay Orear My First Meetings with Fermi
Arthur Rosenfeld Reminiscences of Fermi
Robert Schluter Some Reminiscences of Enrico Fermi
Jack Steinberger Fermi and My Graduate Years at Chicago: Happy Reminiscences
Chapter 8 Reminiscences of Students of the Fermi Period, 1945-1954
Nina Byers Fermi and Szilard
Jerome Friedman A Student's View of Fermi
Maurice Glicksman Enrico Fermi: Teacher, Colleague, Mentor
Marshall Rosenbluth A Young Man Encounters Enrico Fermi
Lincoln Wolfenstein Fermi Interactions
C. N. Yang Reminiscences of Enrico Fermi
Gaurang Yodh This Account Is Not According to the Mahabharata!
Chapter 9 What Can We Learn with High Energy Accelerators?
James W. Cronin Fermi's Look into His Crystal Ball
Further Reading
List of Contributors
Index