Name Laura Fermi Role Writer | Parents Augusto Capon | |
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Died December 26, 1977, Chicago, Illinois, United States Spouse Enrico Fermi (m. 1928–1954) Education Sapienza University of Rome Books Atoms in the Family, Galileo and the scientific revolution | ||
Children Nella Fermi, Giulio Fermi | ||
Laura Fermi
Laura Capon Fermi (16 June 1907 – 26 December 1977) was an Italian, later American writer and political activist, and the wife of Nobel Prize physicist Enrico Fermi.
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Biography
Laura Capon was born in Rome in 1907. Capon met Enrico Fermi while she was a student in general science at the University of Rome. The couple married in 1928.
They had two children: a daughter, Nella (1931–1995), and a son, Giulio (1936–1997), named after Enrico's older brother, who had died in 1915.
In 1938, the Fermis emigrated to the United States to escape the anti-Jewish laws of the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini; Laura was Jewish. Though Fermi's prestige and membership in the Royal Academy of Italy could have mitigated the impact of the laws, they chose to leave instead. They traveled to Stockholm to receive Fermi's Nobel prize, and left from Stockholm for the United States, where Fermi had accepted a position at Columbia University. They were naturalized as Americans in 1944.
After Enrico died of stomach cancer in 1954, Laura became a writer and a peace activist. She published a book about her life with Enrico, Atoms in the Family, the same year he died. She died in 1977.