Enrico Fermi Institute
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__NOTOC__ The Institute for Nuclear Studies was founded September 1945 as part of the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
with
Samuel King Allison Samuel King Allison (November 13, 1900 – September 15, 1965) was an American physicist, most notable for his role in the Manhattan Project, for which he was awarded the Medal for Merit. He was director of the Metallurgical Laboratory from 1943 ...
as director. On November 20, 1955, it was renamed The Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies. The name was shortened to The Enrico Fermi Institute (EFI) in January 1968. Physicist
Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
was heavily involved in the founding years of the institute, and it was at his request that Allison took the position as the first director. In addition to Fermi and Allison, the initial faculty included Harold C. Urey,
Edward Teller Edward Teller ( hu, Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care fo ...
, Joseph E. Mayer, and
Maria Goeppert Mayer Maria Goeppert Mayer (; June 28, 1906 – February 20, 1972) was a German-born American theoretical physicist, and Nobel laureate in Physics for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus. She was the second woman to win a Nobel Pr ...
.


Research activities

*Theoretical and experimental
particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
; *Theoretical and experimental
astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
and
cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
; *
General relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...
; *
Electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...
; *Ion microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry; *
Nonimaging optics Nonimaging optics (also called anidolic optics)Roland Winston et al., ''Nonimaging Optics'', Academic Press, 2004 R. John Koshel (Editor), ''Illumination Engineering: Design with Nonimaging Optics'', Wiley, 2013 is the branch of optics concerned wi ...
and solar energy concentration; *
Geochemistry Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...
,
cosmochemistry Cosmochemistry (from Greek κόσμος ''kósmos'', "universe" and χημεία ''khemeía'') or chemical cosmology is the study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe and the processes that led to those compositions. This is done ...
and nuclear chemistry.


Notable staff

*
Herbert L. Anderson Herbert Lawrence Anderson (May 24, 1914 – July 16, 1988) was an American nuclear physicist who was Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. He contributed to the Manhattan Project. He was also a member of the team which made the firs ...
, nuclear physicist *
James Cronin James Watson Cronin (September 29, 1931 – August 25, 2016) was an American particle physicist. Cronin was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He and co-researcher Val Logsdon Fitch were aw ...
, Nobel laureate in physics *
Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and ...
, Nobel laureate in physics * Riazuddin, nuclear physicist *
Robert Geroch Robert Geroch (born 1 June 1942 in Akron, Ohio) is an American theoretical physicist and professor at the University of Chicago. He has worked prominently on general relativity and mathematical physics and has promoted the use of category theory i ...
, general relativist *
James Hartle James Burkett Hartle (August 20, 1939) is an American physicist. He has been a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 1966, and he is currently a member of the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. Hartle ...
, general relativist *
Craig Hogan Craig Hogan is a Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Chicago and he is the director of the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics. He is known for his theory of " holographic noise", which holds that holographic principle ...
, astronomer *
Faheem Hussain Faheem Hussain (31 July 1942 – 29 September 2009), was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and a professor of physics at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). A research scientist in the field of superstring theory at the Nationa ...
, string theorist *
Leo Kadanoff Leo Philip Kadanoff (January 14, 1937 – October 26, 2015) was an American physicist. He was a professor of physics (emeritus from 2004) at the University of Chicago and a former President of the American Physical Society (APS). He contributed t ...
, condensed matter physicist * Edward Kolb, cosmologist *
Emil Martinec Emil John Martinec (born 1958) is an American string theorist, a physics professor at the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago, and director of the Kadanoff Center for Theoretical Physics. He was part of a group at Princeton Universi ...
, string theorist * Joseph E. Mayer, chemist *
Maria Goeppert Mayer Maria Goeppert Mayer (; June 28, 1906 – February 20, 1972) was a German-born American theoretical physicist, and Nobel laureate in Physics for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus. She was the second woman to win a Nobel Pr ...
, Nobel laureate in physics *
Yoichiro Nambu was a Japanese-American physicist and professor at the University of Chicago. Known for his contributions to the field of theoretical physics, he was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008 for the discovery in 1960 of the mechanism ...
, Nobel laureate in physics *
Marcel Schein Marcel Schein (June 9, 1902 – February 20, 1960) was a Slovak-born American physicist, best known for his work on cosmic rays. He is the father of former MIT professor Edgar Schein. Biography Marcel Schein was born in Trstená, Kingdom of ...
, cosmic ray physicist *
John Alexander Simpson John Alexander Simpson (November 3, 1916 – August 31, 2000) was an American physicist and science educator. He was deeply committed to educating the public and political leaders about science and its implications, most notably as a principal fou ...
, nuclear and cosmic ray physicist *
Edward Teller Edward Teller ( hu, Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care fo ...
, nuclear physicist, father of the hydrogen bomb * Michael Turner, cosmologist * Harold C. Urey, Nobel laureate in chemistry * Carlos E.M. Wagner, particle phenomenologist * Robert M. Wald, general relativist *
Gregor Wentzel Gregor Wentzel (17 February 1898 – 12 August 1978) was a German physicist known for development of quantum mechanics. Wentzel, Hendrik Kramers, and Léon Brillouin developed the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin approximation in 1926. In his early y ...
, quantum physicist


See also

*
Fermilab Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been operat ...
*
Particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
*
James Franck Institute The James Franck Institute of the University of Chicago conducts interdisciplinary research in physics, chemistry and materials science. Scientists at the institute include those interested in condensed matter physics, physical chemistry, material ...


References


External links

*
Guide to the University of Chicago Institute for Nuclear Studies Cyclotron. Records 1946-1952
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
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