help_outline Skip to main content

Chicago Hyde Park Village

5500 S Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
INFO@CHPV.ORG
773-363-1933

Home
Events
FAQs
DONATE
Join our Mailing List
 YouTube
 
Join our Mailing List DONATE  Become a Member Member Login

HomeEvents4:00 PM -- 4:00 PM -- : Bettina Hoerlin and Gino Segrè "Enrico Fermi: The Pope Of Physics

Events - Event View

This is the "Event Detail" view, showing all available information for this event. If the event has passed, click the "Event Report" button to read a report and view photos that were uploaded.

4:00 PM -- 4:00 PM -- : Bettina Hoerlin and Gino Segrè "Enrico Fermi: The Pope Of Physics

When:
Thursday, November 30, 2017, 4:00 PM
Where:
Kirsten Hall, room 106 -- North side of main quadrangle
Additional Info:
Category:
Lecture
Registration is not Required
Payment In Full In Advance Only

Bettina Hoerlin and Gino Segrè

Enrico Fermi: The Pope of Physics

Enrico Fermi has been called the last scientist who knew all of physics, having attained the heights of the profession as a theorist and experimentalist. Unique in numerous ways, this 20th century physicist was entirely self-taught; the breadth and depth of his research remain unparalleled. Fermi’s 1938 Nobel Prize was picked up en route in his flight from fascist Italy with his Jewish wife and children to a new life in America. In 1942 he became the lead scientist in the University of Chicago experiment that produced the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, a key precursor to building the atomic bomb. His role in the success of the Manhattan Project was critical.

This lecture combines Fermi’s personal life with his scientific contributions and illustrates how he was shaped by history and how he, in turn, shaped history. Legendarily apolitical, Fermi was reluctantly involved in American political decision making during the war and afterwards. The many challenges he faced, including the tensions between politics and science, are still relevant today.