"The Italian Navigator Has Landed"

"The Italian navigator has landed" was the wartime coded message announcing the successful first operation of a nuclear reactor, on December 2, 1942. The expression refers to Columbus's exploration of continents previously unknown to Euroeans, but also could apply to the exploration of another unknown continent, the atomic nucleus. This exploration was exemplified in the work of Enrico Fermi, the man who oversaw that first reactor. September 29, 2001 is the centenary of Fermi's birth, and celebrations are planned at a number of institutions, such as Fermilab, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pisa. A US Department of Energy website summarizes some of the accomplishments of this great experimentalist and theorist. Many objects in the world of physics bear his name: an element (100), a national lab (Fermilab), a Presidential award, an institute (at the University of Chicago), a unit of distance (10^-15 m), one of the two broad categories of particle (fermion), an energy level (condensed matter physics), a type of interaction, a constant, a temperature, a gas, and now a brand new US postage stamp.