Talk:Enrico Fermi

Volta quote
In the Legacy section, third paragraph, there is quote by(?) Fermi about(?) Volta unable to understand where the study of electricity would lead. It is unclear if Volta is mentioned working in his own (more likely, I think) laboratory or Fermi's (less likely). The quote is also unreferenced; My question is: what does the quote actually say? Can a reference be dug up? OneShot010 (talk) 15:04, 25 February 2020 (UTC)

EDITED: My bad, the sentence is actually referenced. OneShot010 (talk) 15:17, 25 February 2020 (UTC)
 * What Laura says is:"Enrico is fond of stressing this point. It used to be one of his favourite topics in popular lectures. When he was very young and could not improvise his speeches, as he does now, he used to dictate them to me. Many started with such words as "When Volta was in the quiet of his little laboratory..." The gist of the story was that when the famous Italian physicist discovered the Voltaic cell he was living in his ivory tower. Neither he nor his contemporaries had foreseen the consequences of his work. Electricity, studied by a handful of researchers, was confined to laboratory experiments. Half a century was to pass before it became the dominant factor in the marvellous inventions that have revolutionised our mode of life."


 * Hawkeye7  (discuss)  18:43, 25 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Thank you. OneShot010 (talk) 06:42, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

Great teacher
Fermi's effectiveness and impact as a teacher is attested in a vast literature, and the account is obviously based on physicists who had him as a teacher. One document (out of the several) of this kind is, famously, the 'To Fermi with Love' material prepared after Fermi's death by people from the Argonne National Laboratory, the US Atomic Energy Commission, and the American Institute of Physics, which shows more than esteem: hence, dear User:AussieWikiDan, what's the point of removing the reference based on 'NPOV violation'? --79.60.3.92 (talk) 04:42, 10 August 2020 (UTC)


 * I noticed also the removal: forgetting for a moment the "beloved", how can be defined a teacher whose students include eight Nobel Prizes? The only problem here is to decide if the source is reliable. Alex2006 (talk) 08:48, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Scuola Normale Superiore and "laurea"
The Scuola Normale Superiore never provided a "laurea". It is so today and I have no reason to think that was different at Fermi's time. The Scuola provides a "diploma" (not a PhD) that adds to the "laurea" that is granted by the University of Pisa instead. It is only asked to the student to keep a certain average of grades at the examinations to avoid to be expelled. It is also requested a minimum grade for each examination but I am not sure about this. I think that this should be properly fixed in this article. This is very well explained at their site. --Pra1998 (talk) 08:11, 1 October 2023 (UTC)