Enrico Fermi Traditional Cache
Hidden : 2/8/2017
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Enrico Fermi was one of the most important nuclear physicists of the 20th century. This cache is placed in his honor.

About Enrico Fermi:

He was born in Rome, Italy on September 29, 1901. Enrico Fermi studied physics in Pisa. Later he worked in Germany and the Netherlands, before he went back to Italy as a Professor.

Enrico Fermi received the Nobel Prize in physics at the age of 37 for his work on "demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons". But instead of returning to Italy after receiving the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Enrico Fermi, his wife Laura and their two children fled to New York in 1939. They applied for permanent residency. Enrico Fermi received offers to work at five different universities. He first accepted the offer from Columbia University, but later he came to the University of Chicago.

Near the cache was the Chicago-Pile-1 experiment, the first nuclear reactor. On December 2, 1942 at 3:25 pm, Fermi and his collaborators achieved the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction. The nearby bronze sculpture by Henry Moore was installed exactly 25 years later, "as a memorial to the accomplishments of Fermi and his fellow physicists" (visit link)

In 1944, Fermi moved to Los Alamos and was involved in the Manhattan project, which had the goal to design and build the first atomic bomb. After the second World War, Fermi moved back to Chicago and worked as a Professor at the University of Chicago. He died 1954 of stomach cancer. (Information based on (visit link) )

Two research institutes in the Chicago area were named after Enrico Fermi: The first one is the Enrico Fermi Institute on the other side of the street. The second one is Fermilab in Batavia, IL.

And in case you are wondering what the nearby elliptical glass dome is: It is The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library (visit link)

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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