Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September 29, 1901. He became interested in physics at an early age and taught himself the basics of the subject. His textbook was written in Latin because no Italian-language text was then available.

Fermi entered the University of Pisa at the age of seventeen and received his Ph.D. in 1922. He then traveled to the universities of Göttingen and Leyden for graduate study. In 1924, Fermi accepted a teaching position at the University of Florence. Two years later he became professor of physics at the University of Rome, where he remained until 1938. During his tenure at Rome, Fermi was responsible for revitalizing Italian physics, which had been held in low regard among physicists.

Fermi's interests included many aspects of physical theory. As early as 1926, for example, he developed a theory to explain the behavior of "clouds" of electrons in a substance. The...