research
The Enrico Fermi Research Center - CREF promotes original and high-impact lines of research, based on physical methods, but with a strong interdisciplinary character and in relation to the main problems of the modern knowledge society.
People
third mission
The CREF was born with a dual soul: a research centre and a historical museum. Its aim is to preserve and disseminate the memory of Enrico Fermi and to promote the dissemination and communication of scientific culture.
news
Publications, news, press review. For interviews, filming, and press contacts, please write to comunicazione@cref.it
the institute
Our Mission
Our research centre is located in the building that housed the historic Royal Institute of Physics in the 1930s, where Enrico Fermi and a group of young physicists carried out the first experiments on radioactivity induced by neutrons, fundamental to the future development of nuclear energy. Here, the history of physics and the whole twentieth century was written.
A new research centre
In 1999, Parliament unanimously approved a law to create a new research institution, the “Enrico Fermi Historical Museum of Physics and Research Centre” (CREF), under the supervision of the Ministry of the University, to honour the place’s historical memory.
The restored building will officially be inaugurated in November 2019, beginning the CREF’s real operational, scientific, and museum phase.
A double mission
The organisation’s mission is therefore twofold:
- It aims to ensure the widespread dissemination and communication of Fermi’s life and discoveries by developing a modern historical physics museum dedicated to his scientific legacy. The Museum’s activities also include various types of initiatives for the dissemination and promotion of scientific culture aimed at a wide and varied audience, with particular attention to schools and universities.
- In the spirit that characterised Enrico Fermi’s activities, it aims to develop original and powerful lines of research based on physics methods but with a strong interdisciplinary character.