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Architect of the Nuclear Age

2019-11-28 Thu

Born in Rome, Italy in September 1901, Enrico Fermi was regarded as one of the pre-eminent physicists and the creator of the world’s first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons.

He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb".

The Postal Service issued a 34 cent Enrico Fermi commemorative stamp in Chicago, Illinois, on September 29, 2001. This stamp commemorates the centenary of his birth. The stamp art includes a colorized black and white photograph of Fermi taken in 1948 and a model of the carbon atom. Graphite, a form of carbon, was used to slow down the neutrons in the first nuclear reactor.

Image Source: www.mysticstamp.com

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