George E. Uhlenbeck (1900-1988)

12/6/1900, Born, Jakarta, Dutch East Indies, second oldest of four surviving children.
Father, a military officer, born in Java came from a long line of military in the Dutch East Indian army dating to 1768. 
Mother, born in Sumatra was the daughter of a Dutch major general
1907, Father retired at 42 and the family moved permanently to Holland and settled in The Hague primarily for the children’s education.
Early education was in primary school and high school (athenaeum) in The Hague.  A very dutiful and hard working student he was primarily influenced by his high school physics teacher (A.H. Borgesius) who had a PhD and had published.




1918, Graduated athenaeum but could not enter a Dutch U. because of a lack of Latin and Greek.
1918, Institute Technology, Delft, Chem. Eng.
1919-22, U. Lieden, Physics & Math (Ehrenfest)
Admitted due to Dutch law change.
1922-25, Rome, Private Tutor

1923, M.Sc., U. Lieden
1925, U. Lieden, Assistant to Paul Ehrenfest
10/17/1925, Paper on Discovery of Spin

1927, Copenhagen & U. Gottingen
7/7/1927, Ph.D., U. Lieden (Ehrenfest)
9/1927-35, U. Michigan
Together with S. Goudsmit who co-authored the Spin paper and obtained his PhD at the same time, Uhlenbeck moved to the U.S. on the advice of Ehrenfest and both began their academic careers that continued to parallel each other.
1935-38, U. Utrecht, Prof., Theoretical Physics
Upon Paul Ehrenfest’s suicide in 1933, Hendrik Kramers who was chair at Utrecht filled the Leiden chair.  Kramers convinced Uhlenbeck to return to Holland even though he did not want to.

1938-43, Columbia U., Visiting Professor (On leave from Utrecht for one year. Returned to Holland but with WWII begun, left again for Columbia).

1943-45, Radiation Lab, MIT.  Worked on the development of radar, specifically wave guide theory.

1945-59, U. Michigan, Professor, Theoretical Physics
1948 and 1958, Institute for Advance Studies









1960-1971, Rockefeller U., Professor
1971-1985, Professor Emeritus, left because of failing health.



As well as fundamental work on quantum mechanics, Uhlenbeck worked on atomic structure and kinetic theory of matter.  However, the main topic he worked on throughout his career was statistical physics with the aim of understanding the relationship between physics at the atomic level and the macroscopic level.  He had a very significant influence on statistical mechanics and brought an area which was varied and disjointed into some sort of structured whole.  He was an inspiring teacher with superbly organized and extremely clear lectures.  He stressed clarity and conciseness over originality, which he felt occurred rarely in a career, which was true in his case of the spin theory.



Died, 10/31/88 (87) of stroke, Boulder CO

Enrico Fermi* (1901-1954)*

9/29/01, Born, Rome, Italy
Father: Alberto, a career civil servant in the Italian National Railroad with a rank equivalent to a brigadier general.
Mother: Ida de Gattis
Early education was in local grammar school but his aptitude for math and physics was recognized early and his father’s friend, Adolfo Amidei, an engineer guided his early studies by providing him texts in math and physics so that when he graduated one year early from high school, he had an exceptional foundation.






1918-22, U. Pisa, Physics and Math
Admitted at 17 as Fellow of Scuola Normale Superiore, affiliated with U. Pisa with an entrance essay equal to a doctoral dissertation.  Lectured on quantum theory while an undergraduate.

1922, PhD (Puccianti)
1923, U. Gottingen (Born)
1924, U. Lieden (Ehrenfest)
1924-26, U. Florence, Lecturer in Theor. Physics.

1927, Developed statistical laws governing
 particles (Fermions) subject to Pauli’s
 Exclusion Principle
1927-38, U. Rome, Prof. Theoretical Physics.
Assembled small group of young physicists (Rasetti, Segre, Amaldi, Ponticorvo, D’Agostino) and an experimental lab to focus on investigating the atomic nucleus and its radioactivity.
1934, Beta decay theory and discovery of slow
 neutrons
1938, Nobel Prize, “Artificial radioactivity
produced by neutrons and for nuclear  reactions from slow neutron  bombardment”.
1938, Left Italy for the U.S. immediately after Nobel Prize award because of rise of Fascist government.  Wife was of Jewish descent.
1938-42, Columbia U., Professor of Physics
At Columbia, after the discovery of fission, began work with L. Szilard on controlled nuclear fission and carbon mediated atomic pile.
1942, Director, Experimental Research Program at Metallurgical Lab at U. Chicago, which constructed pile that created first, controlled nuclear chain reaction on 12/2/1942.
1944, Los Alamos Laboratory, was present at the Trinity test site for the first atom bomb explosion.
1944, U.S. citizenship granted.
1946-54, Institute for Nuclear Studies (later named the Fermi Institute), U. Chicago, Professor.

11/29/54, Died of cancer. Chicago (53)





Fermi was an unusual combination of an excellent experimentalist and accomplished theoretician.  He built much of the equipment in the Rome lab and personally conducted many of the experiments.  At the beginning of WWII he was the world’s foremost authority on the neutron.  He had no room for philosophical physics and throughout his career strove for clarity even in the murkiest issues.  He had a penchant for quantifying everything.  He did not become involved in the political debates on the future of atomic energy.  His death was untimely.