Argonne proudly traces its scientific origins to Enrico Fermi – a universal scientist

Dear readers:
Argonne is proud to trace its scientific origins directly to Enrico Fermi — often called the last universal scientist. Fermi was born Sept. 29, 1901, in Rome. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, his intellectual heritage is woven into Argonne’s current missions and programs as firmly as his physical presence was into our beginnings.

In 1938, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for "his 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." His trip to Sweden to accept the prize allowed him to flee fascist Italy with his family and accept a professorship in physics at New York’s Columbia University. In 1942, he joined the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory and led the scientific team that ushered in the Atomic Age on Dec. 2, 1942, with history’s first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Within three months, the reactor, dubbed "Chicago Pile-1," had been moved to the Argonne Forest outside Chicago, reassembled as Chicago Pile-2, and Fermi had been named the first director of the university’s new "Argonne Laboratory." Fermi soon moved to Los Alamos to continue work on the World War II Manhattan Project, then returned to the University of Chicago in 1945 to head the university’s Institute for Nuclear Studies — since renamed the Enrico Fermi Institute. In 1946, Argonne was designated the nation’s first national laboratory, responsible for investigating and developing peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Since then Argonne National Laboratory has evolved from a small, single-mission laboratory into one of the nation’s largest multidisciplinary research centers. Argonne has almost 4,000 employees and operates two main facilities — a 1,500-acre site in Chicago’s western suburbs and a 900-acre site in southwestern Idaho. The laboratory’s nearly $500 million operating budget for fiscal year 2001 supports programs and projects in a wide range of scientific fields.

Fermi’s legacy of innovation and knowledge seeking continues to thrive and inspire at Argonne. It is at the heart of the many Argonne programs — physics, chemistry, materials science, nuclear reactor technology — that grew directly from his scientific interests. His abiding quest for excellence lives in these areas and in others — like computer science, bioscience, and the energy and environmental sciences — that have since become part of Argonne’s fabric. And his spirit is seen in the members of the Argonne community and of the national and international research establishment who flock to Argonne’s world-class research facilities, such as the Advanced Photon Source, the Argonne Tandem-Linac Accelerator System and the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source.

This report summarizes the highlights of Argonne’s research and other activities during fiscal year 2001. Perhaps we flatter ourselves, but we believe that Enrico Fermi would view with pride the many modern accomplishments of the small enterprise he started nearly 60 years ago.