This project has been one of the great adventures of my life and my wife, Susan, was by my side the whole way, as always. We traveled far and wide in search of Enrico Fermi and met an enormous number of people who have been incredibly helpful and generous. This is my opportunity to thank everyone. Please forgive me if I have omitted anyone inadvertently.
My first thanks go to a group of people who worked with Fermi when they were young and who generously shared their memories of him. These include Geoffrey Chew, James Cronin, Jerome Friedman, Richard Garwin, Arthur Rosenfeld, Jack Steinberger, and Courtney Wright. Geoffrey Chew was the first to suggest the title of this book. Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, colleagues of my father, were supportive and encouraging; many years ago, Lee posed the question that led to my father’s muon neutrino experiment. The support of these scientists for this project has been a special privilege and has brought my subject vividly to life. Sadly, James Cronin and Arthur Rosenfeld have since passed away.
My archival research began at the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library. I am grateful to Julia Gardner, Head of Reader Services, Special Collections Research Center; Eileen Ielmini, Assistant University Archivist; and their respective staffs who were all extremely helpful. Christine Colburn was also helpful in the photographic archives. Outside of Chicago, Roger Blomquist, Patricia Canaday, and David Hooper at Argonne National Lab were generous with their time. Lance Friedmann and Sari Gluckin were amazing hosts during our frequent visits to Chicago.
Staff at the three major Manhattan Project sites were extremely helpful. I would like to thank Alan Carr, Rebecca Collinsworth, Barbara Lemmick, Heather McClenehan, and Glen McDuff in Los Alamos, Barbara Penland and Steven Stow in Oak Ridge, and Russel Fabre and the B-Reactor team in Hanford.
At Columbia University, I am grateful to William Zajc, who sponsored me for a Visiting Scholar position, giving me crucial access to the university’s digital portal for scholarly resources for two years. Bill is a former colleague of my father who currently holds the I. I. Rabi Chair of Physics that my father held in the 1990s. Bill was a crucial sounding board and invaluable resource throughout this project, including last-minute comments that saved me from making several mistakes. I am grateful for the many hours spent with him. I am also grateful to Christopher Laico and Tom McCutchon, who provided special access to the Columbia University archives.
In College Park, Maryland, I’d like to thank Greg Good, the director of the American Institute of Physics Center for the History of Physics, as well as the director of the AIP’s Neils Bohr Library, Melanie Mueller, and her colleagues Amanda Nelson and Audrey Lengel. Also in College Park, National Archives staff Rebecca Calcagno, Tab Lewis, and Laurel Macondray, were helpful.
We spent one month in Rome during the fall of 2015 where I was a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy. Founded in 1894 and set in a magnificent villa atop Gianicolo Hill overlooking all of Rome, the Academy has been home to countless scholars, artists, writers, and musicians. Our apartment in the greenhouse at the Villa Aurelia was indeed a luxurious base camp. Thanks to the entire staff, including President Mark Robbins, Executive Director Kim Bowes, and community members Gianpaolo Battaglia, Christine Begley, Paola Gaetani, Denise Gavio, Lindsay Harris, Sebastian Hierl, Peter Miller, Laura Offeddu, Cristina Puglisi, and to everyone else who made our stay so pleasant and productive. We note with sadness the passing of Administrative Director Pina Pasquantonio, who was particularly helpful during our stay. We owe gastronomic thanks to Chris Behr and his team at the Rome Sustainable Food Project, founded by Alice Waters, with whom we enjoyed two memorable meals. I am also indebted to William Higgins, who first introduced me to the Academy, and to Eli Gotlieb, a former Rome Prize winner, who helped me with the application process.
In Rome, many people gave their time and expertise to the project. Luisa Cifarelli, president of the Italian Physics Society, hosted us at the 2015 Enrico Fermi Award dinner. She moved mountains to get us a tour of the Via Panisperna site, which was in the midst of major construction in preparation for its reopening as a museum in 2018. Giovanni Battimelli opened the doors to the vast Amaldi archives at La Sapienza and gave us unrestricted access during our stay in Rome. He continued to answer questions long after we returned to the United States. Francesco Guerra and Nadia Robotti have also been invaluable resources. They spent a full day with us in Rome, discussing our project and presenting their own highly informed, and sometimes iconoclastic, perspectives on Fermi and his colleagues. They also continued to provide valuable insights during the period following our visit. We will never forget the spectacular Sardinian dinner to which they treated us at a restaurant near La Sapienza. Paola Cagiano and Alessandro Romanello served as helpful and generous guides through the archives of the Accademia dei Lincei and the Reale Accademia d’Italia. Alessandro also joined us for a wonderful lunch near the Villa Corsini, and then drove us back to the American Academy one afternoon in the pouring rain. Also in Rome, Laura Fermi’s nephew, Giorgio Capon, and his wife, Teresa, welcomed us into their home, the same home in which Laura grew up, and shared memories of Enrico and Laura. Others who were helpful along the way include Sandro Bettini, Mauro Canali, Adele La Rana, Giovanni Organtini, Marta Pepe, Francesca Salvatore, and Andrea Trentini.
In Pisa, Roberto Vergara Caffarelli was extraordinarily generous with his time and insights and remained helpful throughout the project. Luca Galli and Giovanni Signorelli were brilliant archival and culinary guides; our morning caffé crema remains a fond memory. In addition, I would like to thank Maura Beghè, Monica Biondi, Alessandro Corsi, Chiara Letta, Anita D’Orazio, Umberto Parrini, and Maddalena Taglioli.
In Geneva, we were welcomed by the physicists at CERN, who are in the midst of one of history’s greatest scientific odysseys. Director General Fabiola Gianotti took time out of a hectic schedule to chat about her own work and how it related to Fermi; she also arranged for Steven Goldfarb and Iva Raynova to give us a tour of the ATLAS experiment. We were joined in our meeting with Fabiola by Jack Steinberger, with whom we also enjoyed having lunch in the CERN cafeteria. Ugo Amaldi and his wife, Clelia, hosted us at their lovely home for a leisurely glass of wine and biscotti while he talked about his father, Edoardo, his mother, Genestra, and his own memories of the Fermi family. He independently suggested the title of this book. Toward the end of our visit with him, we were briefly joined by his daughter Silvia, a spitting image of her beautiful grandmother.
Our time in England was quite productive. Our travels took us to the home of Fausta Segrè Walsby and her husband, Tony, in Bristol; to the home of Judd Fermi’s widow, Sarah Fermi, in Cambridge; and to the Senior Common Room at Exeter College, Oxford, where we met with physicist and writer Frank Close. We thoroughly enjoyed all of these meetings and appreciate their ongoing help. Many thanks to Elizabeth Greitzer and John Durrell with whom we stayed in London—we felt right at home and wish we could see them more often.
Three professional physicists read the drafts carefully and helped me through the thickets of explaining complicated concepts in ways that the general public can understand and appreciate: William Zajc of Columbia University, mentioned above; Nicholas Hadley of the University of Maryland, an old high school friend who has played a major role in two significant particle discoveries during his career; and Andrea Gambassi of the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, who in addition to making some important scientific corrections was kind enough to explain the intricacies of a Scuola Normale Superiore education. All three are distinguished, busy scientists. They all read my drafts voluntarily and provided essential feedback on numerous aspects of the book. I hope they enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed discussing it with them. Any mistakes or errors in the physics are, of course, solely my own.
A number of other individuals read the book in part or in its entirety in various drafts and provided invaluable comments and corrections along the way: Joerg Baldauf, Cynthia and Marvin Blynn, Laurie Bruckmann, Camilla Calamandrei, Michael Cohn, Beth Hadley, Howard Jennings, George Minkoff, Rick Peterson, David Rudofsky, Raymond Rudofsky, and Melanie Shugart. Numerous other people were helpful and encouraging along the way. These include Rinaldo Baldini, Nelson Beebe, Patrizia Bigotti, Glenda Bingham, Luisa Bonolis, Justin Breaux, William Briscoe, Paula Bruni, Viola Buckenberger, Elisabetta Calusi, Antonio de Candia, Roberto Casabuoni, Tina Cordova, Gene Dannen, Evan Faye Earle, Joe Escamillo, Alexis Fama, Susan Fine, Julia Foster, John Fox, Colleen French, Henry Frisch, Brett and Carmel Fromson, Joe Gonzales, Karl Grandin, Susanne Grulich, Kevin Haggerty, Larry Haler, Megan Halsband, Matthew Hopkins, Laurie Innes, Karl-Heinz Kampert, Brian Keelean, John Khadem, Sanford Kingsley, Jasper and Rita Kirkby, Penny Kome, Louis Linfield, Daniel Linke, Jack and Lynne Lloyd, Kathryn Ma, John Marshall III, Daniel Meyer, Michela Minesso, Arnon Mishkin, Julie O’Neill, Borden Painter, Shanice Palmer, Sara Paretsky, AnnaLee Pauls, Christie Peterson, Giancarlo Righini, Sandra Romiti, Kevin Roark, Harry and Carol Saal, Tristan Scholl, Anthony Shugaar, Leon Sigal, Megan Smith, Alessandra Stanley, Andrew Szanton, Donna Thompson, Rachel Trent, David Torney, Anne Vargas, Patrick Waide, Andrew Weston-Hawkes, Fletcher Whitworth, Stan Wojcicki, Kristina Wolff, Hillary Dorsch Wong, Nathan Woods, Lila Yawn, and Rita Zanatta.
The Fermi family has been extremely supportive and helpful during the course of the project. In addition to Giorgio Capon and Sarah Fermi, mentioned above, I am grateful to Olivia Fermi, Rachel Fermi, and Gabriella Sacchetti. Olivia and Rachel have provided a wealth of materials relating to their family, including documents and photographs as well as precious memories. Robert Fuller, Giulio/Judd’s oldest and closest friend, also shared personal memories. Some of these discussions touched on delicate matters of family history; I hope I have reflected their perspectives with appropriate respect.
My agent, Michael Carlisle, believed in this project from the beginning and has been a long-time supporter. He and his wife, Sally, have become dear friends. He understands what an author puts into a book and has been a continuous source of wise counsel and support. I am so lucky to work with him and his team at Inkwell Management, including William Callahan, Michael Mungiello, and Hannah Schwartz.
At Basic Books, my editor T. J. Kelleher shepherded this book from the start, with patience, wisdom, insight, and enthusiasm. His team, including Hélène Barthélemy, Sandra Beris, Betsy DeJesu, Kait Howard, Carrie Napolitano, Christina Palaia, and Kelsey Odorczyk, has been extremely helpful.
My family deserves special thanks. My mother, Marilyn, inadvertently kicked this project off with the fortuitous discovery of a batch of my father’s papers in 2013 and was unwavering in her enthusiasm and encouragement, as were my sisters, Diana and Betty. My son, Alex, inherited his grandfather’s gift in the lab, recognized by his high school when they awarded him the Jack Steinberger Prize for scientific research. Susan’s brother, David Rudofsky, outdid himself in proofreading and fact-checking the galleys. Susan and I are both indebted to him. My father-in-law, Raymond Rudofsky, took great joy in the project every step of the way. He was particularly supportive of the decision that Susan and I made to step away from our business in late 2015 so I could devote myself full-time to the project. I am indebted to him for his staunch support and enthusiasm in ways I cannot enumerate.
My father, Melvin, passed away in 2006. Many were the moments when I wanted to consult with him on some complicated aspect of modern physics, as I did when he was alive. He had Fermi’s gift for lucid explanation and enjoyed teaching as much as he did research. He would have loved to see this project. I have been guided throughout by his memory and his inspiration. Dad, I miss you every day.
Finally, this book would simply not have been possible without the support of my research assistant, archival photographer, logistics consultant, travel agent, editorial adviser, relentless proofreader, confidante, therapist, cheerleader, and wife. Her name is Susan, and this book is dedicated to her, with infinite love, affection, and gratitude.