Fermi and Astrophysics

Many events were organized all over the world in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Enrico Fermi, covering his activities in particle physics, nuclear physics, statistical mechanics, and quantum statistics. An important workshop was held at the University of Rome and the ICRA Center in Pescara, Italy, in October 2001. The focus was on the influence of Fermi on astrophysics and general relativity, which have today acquired special scientific meaning owing to the fast developments in the field of relativistic astrophysics. Paradoxically, the major activities of Fermi in those areas were clustered at the beginning and at the end of his scientific career.The meeting had a novel format. In each session a selected paper of Fermi was discussed in terms of both its historical context and later developments related to it; these papers and their commentaries are included in the proceedings. The presentation was followed by an in-depth analysis of recent developments, by active scientists working in each field; this analysis also appears in the proceedings. In some cases, contributions from young researchers about recent PhD theses relevant to the topic at hand concluded the session.Gurzadyan, V. G. is the author of 'Fermi and Astrophysics' with ISBN 9789810249571 and ISBN 9810249578.