Nuclear energy and science policy in post-war Italy
The first Italian researcher to mention the possibility of producing energy by breaking atomic nuclei was Enrico Fermi. Fermi was appointed as professor of theoretical physics at the University of Rome in 1926. Backed by Orso Mario Corbino, who was at that time Director of the University’s Physics Institute, in 1927 and 1928 he assembled a group of young and brilliant researchers. During his term as Minister for the Economy, Corbino established a special office for the supply of radioactive substances.