Enrico Fermi (Italian: [enˈriːko ˈfermi]; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian-American physicist known for creating the first artificial nuclear reactor, called the Chicago Pile-1, and for working on the Manhattan Project. He received the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for showing how new radioactive elements can be made using neutrons and for discovering nuclear reactions caused by slow neutrons. He is often called the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb." Fermi was one of the few scientists who excelled in both theoretical and experimental physics. He and his colleagues created several patents about nuclear power, which the U.S. government later took over. He made important contributions to statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics.

Fermi’s first major work was in statistical mechanics. After Wolfgang Pauli proposed his exclusion principle in 1925, Fermi used it to study an ideal gas, leading to a statistical method now called Fermi–Dirac statistics. Particles that follow this principle are called "fermions." Later, Pauli suggested the existence of a new particle, which Fermi named the "neutrino," to explain energy conservation during beta decay. Fermi’s theory, now called the weak interaction, describes one of the four fundamental forces in nature. He also found that slow neutrons are more likely to be absorbed by atomic nuclei than fast ones, leading to the Fermi age equation. When he bombarded thorium and uranium with slow neutrons, he thought he had created new elements. Though he won the Nobel Prize for this, later research showed the results were nuclear fission products.

In 1938, Fermi left Italy to escape new laws that targeted his Jewish wife, Laura Capon. He moved to the United States and worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. Fermi led the team at the University of Chicago that built Chicago Pile-1, which became the first man-made nuclear reactor to sustain a chain reaction on 2 December 1942. He was present when the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the B Reactor at Hanford, Washington, also reached criticality. At Los Alamos, he managed F Division, which helped develop Edward Teller’s thermonuclear "Super" bomb. He was at the Trinity test on 16 July 1945, the first nuclear bomb test, and used his Fermi method to estimate the bomb’s power.

After the war, Fermi helped create the Institute for Nuclear Studies in Chicago and worked on the General Advisory Committee, led by J. Robert Oppenheimer, which advised the Atomic Energy Commission. After the Soviet Union tested its first fission bomb in 1949, Fermi opposed the development of a hydrogen bomb for both moral and technical reasons. He also testified in support of Oppenheimer during the 1954 hearing that led to Oppenheimer losing his security clearance.

Fermi made important discoveries in particle physics, especially about pions and muons. He also suggested that cosmic rays are created when material is accelerated by magnetic fields in space. Many awards, concepts, and institutions are named after him, including the Fermi 1 reactor, the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station, the Enrico Fermi Award, the Enrico Fermi Institute, Fermilab, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Fermi paradox, and the element fermium. He is one of 16 scientists with elements named after them.

Early life

Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September 29, 1901. He was the third child of Alberto Fermi, who worked in the Ministry of Railways, and Ida de Gattis, who taught elementary school. His sister, Maria, was two years older, and his brother, Giulio, was one year older. Enrico and his brother were sent to a rural area to be cared for by a wet nurse. He returned to Rome with his family when he was two and a half years old. Although he was baptized as a Catholic because of his grandparents’ wishes, his family was not religious. Enrico remained an agnostic throughout his life. As a young boy, he shared interests with his brother, such as building electric motors and playing with mechanical toys. Giulio died in 1915 during an operation for a throat infection, and Maria died in an airplane crash near Milan in 1959.

At a local market in Campo de' Fiori, Fermi found a physics book titled Elementorum physicae mathematicae. The book, written in Latin by Jesuit Father Andrea Caraffa, a professor at the Collegio Romano, covered mathematics, classical mechanics, astronomy, optics, and acoustics as they were understood in 1840. With a friend named Enrico Persico, who was also interested in science, Fermi worked on projects like building gyroscopes and measuring Earth’s gravity.

Enrico often met his father, Alberto, near his office after work. In 1914, he met his father’s colleague, Adolfo Amidei, who sometimes walked with Alberto on his way home. Enrico learned that Adolfo was interested in mathematics and physics and asked him a question about geometry. Adolfo realized the question was about projective geometry and gave Fermi a book on the subject written by Theodor Reye. Two months later, Fermi returned the book, having solved all the problems at the end. Some of these problems were difficult, even for Adolfo. After checking Fermi’s work, Adolfo said he was “a prodigy, at least with respect to geometry” and continued to mentor him, giving him more books on physics and mathematics. Adolfo noted that Fermi had a strong memory, which allowed him to remember the content of books after reading them once.

Scuola Normale Superiorein Pisa

Enrico Fermi graduated from high school in July 1918. He skipped the third year of high school entirely. At the suggestion of his teacher, Amidei, Fermi learned German so he could read scientific papers written in that language. He applied to the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. Amidei believed the Scuola would offer better opportunities for Fermi’s education than the Sapienza University of Rome. Fermi’s parents were not happy about him living in the school’s dorms in Pisa for four years, but they eventually agreed. Fermi scored the highest on the entrance exam, which included an essay on the topic of "Specific characteristics of Sounds." At 17, Fermi used a mathematical method called Fourier analysis to solve a complex equation about a vibrating rod. After speaking with Fermi, the examiner said he would become an outstanding physicist.

At the Scuola Normale Superiore, Fermi played jokes with his classmate Franco Rasetti. The two became close friends and worked together on scientific projects. Fermi studied under Luigi Puccianti, who directed the physics laboratory. Puccianti said there was little he could teach Fermi and often asked Fermi to explain things to him. Because of Fermi’s deep understanding of quantum physics, Puccianti asked him to organize seminars on the topic. During this time, Fermi learned tensor calculus, a mathematical tool important for general relativity. Fermi originally planned to major in mathematics but later switched to physics. He mostly taught himself, studying general relativity, quantum mechanics, and atomic physics.

In September 1920, Fermi joined the physics department at the Scuola. There were only three students in the department—Fermi, Rasetti, and Nello Carrara. Puccianti allowed them to use the laboratory freely for their experiments. Fermi decided the group should study X-ray crystallography. The three worked together to create a Laue photograph, which is an X-ray image of a crystal. In 1921, during his third year at the university, Fermi published his first scientific papers in the Italian journal Nuovo Cimento. The first paper discussed the movement of electrical charges in a rigid system. Fermi used a mathematical concept called a tensor to describe mass, which is different from the way mass is described in classical mechanics. The second paper explored the electrostatics of a gravitational field and the weight of electromagnetic charges. Fermi used general relativity to show that the mass of a charge equals U divided by the speed of light, where U is the system’s electrostatic energy.

The first paper suggested a conflict between electrodynamic theory and relativity regarding the calculation of electromagnetic mass. The electrodynamic theory predicted a value of 4/3 U/c, while Fermi’s work showed that the difference was due to relativity. Fermi’s paper on this topic was so well-received that it was translated into German and published in the journal Physikalische Zeitschrift in 1922. That same year, Fermi submitted a paper titled "On the phenomena occurring near a world line" to the Italian journal I Rendiconti dell'Accademia dei Lincei. In this paper, he examined the Principle of Equivalence and introduced "Fermi coordinates." He proved that space near a timeline behaves like a Euclidean space.

In July 1922, Fermi submitted his thesis, "A theorem on probability and some of its applications," to the Scuola Normale Superiore. He received his laurea at the age of 20. The thesis focused on X-ray diffraction images. At the time, theoretical physics was not recognized as a field in Italy, and only experimental physics was accepted for degrees. This made it harder for Italian scientists to adopt new ideas like relativity. However, Fermi was skilled in experimental work, which helped him navigate this challenge.

In 1923, while helping translate a book on Einstein’s relativity, Fermi first noted that the equation E = mc² hinted at a large amount of energy stored in atomic nuclei. He wrote that it seemed unlikely anyone would find a way to release this energy soon, as doing so might destroy the person who discovered it.

From 1923 to 1924, Fermi studied under Max Born at the University of Göttingen. There, he met Werner Heisenberg and Pascual Jordan. Later, Fermi studied in Leiden with Paul Ehrenfest, thanks to a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. In Leiden, he met Hendrik Lorentz and Albert Einstein, and became friends with Samuel Goudsmit and Jan Tinbergen. From 1925 to 1926, Fermi taught mathematical physics and theoretical mechanics at the University of Florence. He worked with Rasetti to study how magnetic fields affect mercury vapor. He also gave lectures on quantum mechanics and solid state physics at the Sapienza University of Rome. During these lectures, he often said, "It has no business to fit so well!" referring to the accuracy of the Schrödinger equation.

In 1925, after Wolfgang Pauli introduced his exclusion principle, Fermi published a paper applying the principle to an ideal gas. His work described how particles in a system obey the exclusion principle, a concept later developed independently by Paul Dirac. This statistical method is now known as Fermi–Dirac statistics. Particles that follow the exclusion principle are called "fermions," while those that do not are called "bosons."

Professor in Rome

In Italy, professorships were given through a competition called a "concorso" when a position became available. A committee of professors evaluated applicants based on their published work. Enrico Fermi applied for a position in mathematical physics at the University of Cagliari on Sardinia but was narrowly chosen over Giovanni Giorgi. In 1926, at age 24, Fermi applied for a new professorship in theoretical physics at Sapienza University of Rome. This position was created by the Minister of Education with the support of Professor Orso Mario Corbino, who was a professor of experimental physics, director of the Institute of Physics, and a member of Benito Mussolini’s government. Corbino led the selection committee and hoped the new role would improve Italy’s physics education. Fermi was selected over Enrico Persico and Aldo Pontremoli. Corbino helped Fermi build his team, which included students like Edoardo Amaldi, Bruno Pontecorvo, Ettore Majorana, and Emilio Segrè, as well as Franco Rasetti, who became Fermi’s assistant. These scientists were later called the "Via Panisperna boys" after the street where the Institute of Physics was located.

Fermi married Laura Capon, a science student at the university, on July 19, 1928. They had two children: Nella, born in January 1931, and Giulio, born in February 1936. On March 18, 1929, Mussolini appointed Fermi to the Royal Academy of Italy, and on April 27, Fermi joined the Fascist Party. Later, he opposed Fascism after Mussolini passed the 1938 racial laws, which targeted Jews and harmed many of Fermi’s research assistants, including Laura.

During his time in Rome, Fermi and his team made important contributions to physics. In 1928, he wrote Introduction to Atomic Physics, a textbook for Italian students. He also gave public lectures and wrote articles to share physics knowledge widely. Fermi often gathered colleagues and students to discuss problems from his research. His work attracted international attention, including Hans Bethe, a German physicist who visited Rome as a Rockefeller Foundation fellow and collaborated with Fermi on a 1932 paper titled "On the Interaction between Two Electrons."

At the time, scientists were puzzled by beta decay, a process where an electron is emitted from an atomic nucleus. To explain energy conservation, physicist Wolfgang Pauli proposed an invisible, chargeless particle with little or no mass, which he called a "neutrino." Fermi developed this idea in a 1933 paper and later expanded it in a longer paper. His theory, later called the "weak interaction," described one of the four fundamental forces of nature. The neutrino was detected after Fermi’s death, and his theory explained why it was hard to find. When Fermi submitted his paper to the British journal Nature, the editor rejected it, calling the ideas "too remote from physical reality." Fermi’s biographer noted that Nature typically published short notes, not full theories, and suggested the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London would have been more appropriate. Some scholars believe this rejection encouraged Fermi’s Jewish and leftist colleagues to stop boycotting German scientific journals after Hitler came to power in 1933. Fermi’s theory was published in Italian and German before appearing in English.

In January 1934, Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie announced they had induced radioactivity by bombarding elements with alpha particles. By March, Fermi’s assistant Gian-Carlo Wick used Fermi’s beta decay theory to explain their findings. Fermi then shifted to experimental physics, using neutrons discovered by James Chadwick in 1932. He wanted to test if Rasetti’s polonium-beryllium neutron source could induce radioactivity. Neutrons, having no charge, could penetrate atomic nuclei more easily than charged particles, avoiding the need for a particle accelerator. Fermi replaced the polonium-beryllium source with a radon-beryllium one, which emitted gamma rays but, based on his theory, he believed would not affect the experiment. He tested platinum, aluminium, lead, and fluorine (as calcium fluoride), inducing radioactivity in 22 elements. Fermi reported his discovery of neutron-induced radioactivity in the Italian journal La Ricerca Scientifica on March 25, 1934.

The natural radioactivity of thorium and uranium made it hard to analyze results when these elements were bombarded with neutrons. After ruling out lighter elements, Fermi concluded he had created new elements, which he named ausenium and hesperium. Chemist Ida Noddack suggested some experiments might have produced lighter elements instead of heavier ones, but her idea was ignored because her team had not tested uranium or developed a theory for this possibility. At the time, scientists believed neutron bombardment would create heavier elements, not split atoms.

The Via Panisperna boys also noticed strange results. The experiment worked better on a wooden table than a marble one. Fermi recalled that Joliot-Curie and Chadwick had found paraffin wax slowed neutrons, so he tested it. Using paraffin wax increased radioactivity in silver by 100 times.

Manhattan Project

Enrico Fermi arrived in New York City on January 2, 1939. He was offered jobs at five universities and chose to work at Columbia University, where he had already taught summer classes in 1936. In December 1938, German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered the element barium after using neutrons to strike uranium. Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch correctly explained this as nuclear fission. Frisch confirmed this discovery experimentally on January 13, 1939. Niels Bohr, a physicist, shared this information with others in the United States. Two Columbia University scientists, Isidor Isaac Rabi and Willis Lamb, learned about it and told Fermi. However, Fermi later credited Lamb for the information.

Fermi had previously dismissed the possibility of nuclear fission because of his calculations, but he had not considered the binding energy involved when a neutron was added to a nucleus with an odd number of neutrons. This discovery embarrassed Fermi, as the elements he had helped discover, which earned him a Nobel Prize, were not new elements but products of fission. He added a note about this to his Nobel Prize speech.

Scientists at Columbia University decided to study the energy released during uranium fission. On January 25, 1939, in the basement of Pupin Hall, Fermi and a team of researchers conducted the first nuclear fission experiment in the United States. The team included Herbert L. Anderson, Eugene T. Booth, John R. Dunning, G. Norris Glasoe, and Francis G. Slack. The next day, the fifth Washington Conference on Theoretical Physics began in Washington, D.C., where news about fission was shared widely.

French scientists Hans von Halban, Lew Kowarski, and Frédéric Joliot-Curie showed that uranium released more neutrons than it absorbed when struck by neutrons, suggesting a chain reaction was possible. Fermi and Anderson later confirmed this. Leó Szilárd obtained 200 kilograms of uranium oxide from Canada, allowing Fermi and Anderson to test fission on a larger scale. Fermi and Szilárd worked together to design a device that could create a self-sustaining nuclear reaction—a nuclear reactor. Using water as a neutron moderator was not ideal because hydrogen in water absorbed too many neutrons. Fermi suggested using graphite instead of water as a moderator with uranium oxide blocks, which would reduce neutron absorption and allow a chain reaction. Szilárd designed a reactor made of uranium oxide and graphite bricks. Fermi, Szilárd, and Anderson published a paper titled "Neutron Production in Uranium." However, their different work styles made collaboration difficult.

Fermi warned military leaders about the power of nuclear energy in a lecture on March 18, 1939. The Navy gave $1,500 to support further research at Columbia. Later that year, Szilárd, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller sent a letter signed by Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning that Nazi Germany might build an atomic bomb. Roosevelt then created the Advisory Committee on Uranium to study the issue.

The committee funded Fermi to buy graphite, and he built a pile of graphite bricks on the seventh floor of Pupin Hall. By August 1941, he had six tons of uranium oxide and thirty tons of graphite, which he used to create a larger pile in Schermerhorn Hall.

In December 1941, the Advisory Committee on Uranium, now called the S-1 Section, met as the United States entered World War II. Most research focused on producing enriched uranium, but Arthur Compton, a committee member, proposed using plutonium, which could be made in nuclear reactors by 1944. He decided to focus plutonium research at the University of Chicago, and Fermi reluctantly moved his team there.

Because the effects of a self-sustaining nuclear reaction were unknown, it was risky to build the first reactor in a city. Compton found a site in Argonne Woods Forest Preserve, but construction was delayed due to a labor dispute. Fermi then suggested building the reactor in the squash court under the stands of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field. Construction began on November 6, 1942, and the reactor, called Chicago Pile-1, became self-sustaining on December 2. Fermi calculated that the reactor could reach criticality before the entire pile was completed.

This experiment marked a major step in energy research and reflected Fermi's careful planning. When the first self-sustaining chain reaction was achieved, Compton called James B. Conant, head of the National Defense Research Committee.

To avoid public health risks, the reactor was moved to Argonne Woods. Fermi directed experiments there, using the reactor for physics, engineering, and later for biological and medical research. Argonne initially operated as part of the University of Chicago but became an independent institution with Fermi as its director in May 1944.

On November 4, 1943, the air-cooled X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge became self-sustaining. Fermi was present in case of problems. Technicians woke him early to witness the event. The X-10 reactor provided data on reactor design, trained DuPont staff, and produced the first small amounts of plutonium. Fermi became a U.S. citizen in July 1944, the earliest allowed by law.

In September 1944, Fermi inserted the first uranium fuel into the B Reactor at the Hanford Site, a large-scale plutonium production reactor designed by his team. Like X-10, it was built by DuPont but was water-cooled and much larger. Over several days, 838 tubes were filled, and the reactor became self-sustaining. Operators began removing control rods to start production. At first, everything seemed normal, but by 3:00 a.m., the power level dropped, and the reactor shut down.

Postwar work

Enrico Fermi became the Charles H. Swift Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago on July 1, 1945. He did not leave the Los Alamos Laboratory with his family until December 31, 1945. In 1945, he was chosen to be a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. The Metallurgical Laboratory changed its name to the Argonne National Laboratory on July 1, 1946, becoming the first national laboratory created by the Manhattan Project. The close distance between Chicago and Argonne allowed Fermi to work at both locations. At Argonne, he continued his research in experimental physics, studying neutron scattering with Leona Marshall. He also discussed theoretical physics with Maria Mayer, helping her develop ideas about spin–orbit coupling that later led to her receiving the Nobel Prize.

The Manhattan Project was replaced by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on January 1, 1947. Fermi served on the AEC General Advisory Committee, a scientific group led by Robert Oppenheimer. He also spent several weeks each year at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked with Nicholas Metropolis and John von Neumann on Rayleigh–Taylor instability, a concept that describes what happens at the boundary between two fluids with different densities.

After the first Soviet fission bomb was tested in August 1949, Fermi and Isidor Rabi wrote a strong report for the committee, arguing against creating a hydrogen bomb because of ethical and scientific concerns. However, Fermi still worked on hydrogen bomb research as a consultant at Los Alamos. With Stanislaw Ulam, he calculated that the amount of tritium needed for Edward Teller’s model of a thermonuclear weapon would be too high, and even with that amount, a fusion reaction might not be guaranteed. Fermi was among the scientists who supported Robert Oppenheimer during the 1954 security hearing, which led to Oppenheimer losing his security clearance.

Later in his career, Fermi continued teaching at the University of Chicago, where he helped create the Enrico Fermi Institute, which later became known as the Enrico Fermi Institute. His PhD students after the war included Owen Chamberlain, Geoffrey Chew, Jerome Friedman, Marvin Goldberger, Tsung-Dao Lee, Arthur Rosenfeld, and Sam Treiman. Jack Steinberger was a graduate student, and Mildred Dresselhaus was greatly influenced by Fermi during the year they overlapped as PhD students. Fermi conducted important research in particle physics, especially about pions and muons. He made the first predictions about pion-nucleon resonance, using statistical methods because he believed exact answers were unnecessary if the theory was incorrect. In a paper coauthored with Chen Ning Yang, he suggested that pions might be made of smaller particles. This idea was later developed by Shoichi Sakata. Over time, the quark model replaced this theory, showing that pions are made of quarks, which completed Fermi’s model and supported his approach.

Fermi wrote a paper titled "On the Origin of Cosmic Radiation," in which he proposed that cosmic rays are created when materials are accelerated by magnetic fields in space. This idea caused a disagreement with Edward Teller. Fermi also studied magnetic fields in the arms of spiral galaxies. He considered what is now called the "Fermi paradox," which is the question of why, if extraterrestrial life is likely, no contact has been made.

Near the end of his life, Fermi questioned whether society could make wise decisions about nuclear technology. He said:

Death

In October 1954, Fermi had an "exploratory" operation at Billings Memorial Hospital and then returned home. Fifty days later, he died from inoperable stomach cancer at his home in Chicago at the age of 53. Fermi believed that working near the nuclear pile carried significant risks, but he continued his work because he thought the benefits were greater than the danger to his own safety. Two of his graduate student assistants who worked near the pile also died from cancer.

A memorial service was held at the University of Chicago chapel, where colleagues Samuel K. Allison, Emilio Segrè, and Herbert L. Anderson spoke to mourn the loss of one of the world's "most brilliant and productive physicists." His body was interred at Oak Woods Cemetery, where a private graveside service for his immediate family took place, with a Lutheran chaplain presiding.

Impact and legacy

Enrico Fermi received many awards for his work. These include the Matteucci Medal in 1926, the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938, the Hughes Medal in 1942, the Franklin Medal in 1947, and the Rumford Prize in 1953. In 1946, he was awarded the Medal for Merit for his role in the Manhattan Project. Fermi became a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1939 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1950. The Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, which honors many artists, scientists, and important figures in Italian history, has a plaque that remembers Fermi. In 1999, Time magazine listed Fermi among the top 100 people of the twentieth century. Fermi was known for excelling in both theoretical and experimental physics, which was unusual for his time. Radiochemist and nuclear physicist Emilio Segrè said Fermi was "the last universal physicist in the tradition of great men of the 19th century" and noted that he "was the last person who knew all of physics of his day." Chemist and novelist C. P. Snow wrote that if Fermi had been born earlier, he might have discovered the atomic nucleus or developed the theory of the hydrogen atom. He added that any statement about Fermi might seem exaggerated.

Fermi was known as an inspiring teacher who paid close attention to detail and prepared his lectures carefully. His lecture notes were later published as books. Today, his papers and notebooks are kept at the University of Chicago. Victor Weisskopf said Fermi always found the simplest way to solve problems, avoiding unnecessary complexity. He preferred simple solutions even though he had strong mathematical skills. Fermi was famous for quickly and accurately solving difficult problems. His method for making fast, approximate calculations became known as the "Fermi method" and is still taught today.

Fermi often mentioned that Alessandro Volta, when working in his laboratory, could not have predicted where the study of electricity would lead. Fermi is most remembered for his work on nuclear power and nuclear weapons, including creating the first nuclear reactor and developing the first atomic and hydrogen bombs. His scientific contributions have remained important over time. These include his theory of beta decay, his work with non-linear systems, his discovery of the effects of slow neutrons, his study of pion-nucleon collisions, and his Fermi–Dirac statistics. His idea that a pion was not a fundamental particle helped scientists later study quarks and leptons.

Many things are named after Fermi. These include Fermilab, a particle accelerator and physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, which was renamed in his honor in 1974, and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, named after him in 2008 for his work on cosmic rays. Three nuclear reactors are named after him: Fermi 1 and Fermi 2 in Newport, Michigan; the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant in Italy; and the RA-1 Enrico Fermi research reactor in Argentina. A synthetic element found in debris from the 1952 Ivy Mike nuclear test was named Fermium, honoring Fermi’s contributions. This makes him one of 16 scientists with elements named after them.

Since 1956, the United States Atomic Energy Commission and later the U.S. Energy Department have given its highest honor, the Fermi Award, in his name. Past recipients include Otto Hahn, Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and Hans Bethe.

Publications

• Introduction to Atomic Physics (in Italian). Published by N. Zanichelli in Bologna in 1928. OCLC 9653646.
• Physics for High Schools (in Italian). Published by N. Zanichelli in Bologna in 1929. OCLC 9653646.
• Molecules and Crystals (in Italian). Published by N. Zanichelli in Bologna in 1934. OCLC 19918218.
• Thermodynamics. Published by Prentice Hall in New York in 1937. OCLC 2379038.
• Physics for Technical Schools (in Italian). Published by N. Zanichelli in Bologna in 1938.
• Physics for Scientific High Schools (in Italian). Published by N. Zanichelli in Bologna in 1938. Co-authored with Edoardo Amaldi.
• Elementary Particles. Published by Yale University Press in New Haven in 1951. OCLC 362513.
• Notes on Quantum Mechanics. Published by The University of Chicago Press in Chicago in 1961. OCLC 1448078.

For a complete list of his works, see pages 75–78 in reference.

Patents

• US Patent 2206634 , "Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances", granted July 1940
• US Patent 2836554 , "Air Cooled Neutronic Reactor", granted April 1950
• US Patent 2524379 , "Neutron Velocity Selector", granted October 1950
• US Patent 2852461 , "Neutronic Reactor", granted September 1953
• US Patent 2708656 , "Neutronic Reactor", granted May 1955
• US Patent 2768134 , "Testing Material in a Neutronic Reactor", granted October 1956
• US Patent 2780595 , "Test Exponential Pile", granted February 1957
• US Patent 2798847 , "Method of Operating a Neutronic Reactor", granted July 1957
• US Patent 2807581 , "Neutronic Reactor", granted September 1957
• US Patent 2807727 , "Neutronic Reactor Shield", granted September 1957
• US Patent 2813070 , "Method of Sustaining a Neutronic Chain Reacting System", granted November 1957
• US Patent 2837477 , "Chain Reacting System", granted June 1958
• US Patent 2931762 , "Neutronic Reactor", granted April 1960
• US Patent 2969307 , "Method of Testing Thermal Neutron Fissionable Material for Purity", granted January 1961