This playground is named in honor of Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), one of the great physicists of the 20th century whose work revolutionized quantum physics and helped usher in the atomic age. Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, and earned a doctorate in physics from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 1922. Widespread acclaim came to Fermi in 1926, when he discovered the statistics verifying the Pauli exclusion principle, one of the basic foundations of nuclear physics.
From 1927 to 1938, Fermi taught at the University of Rome. In 1934, he discovered the theory of beta decay, which helped to clarify scientific understanding of the mechanics of the atom. Fermi received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938 for his work in artificial radiation from neutrinos, or uncharged particles with no mass. Fearful of the fascist regime that rose to power in Italy in the 1930s, Fermi fled the country in 1939, and accepted a professorship at Columbia University in New York City.
Directions to Fermi Playground
Fermi Playground Weather