was an Italian-American physicist who played a key role in solving the problems connected with the development of the first atomic bomb. He was one of the leaders of the team of physicists on the Manhattan Project for the development of the atomic bomb. In 1926, Fermi discovered the statistical laws, now called Fermi-Dirac statistics, that govern the particles subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Such particles are called fermions in Fermi's honor. Throughout his career, Fermi developed the mathematical statistics required to clarify a large class of subatomic phenomena, discovered neutron-induced radioactivity, and directed the first controlled chain reaction involving nuclear fission. The latter took place in Chicago on December 2, 1942 in a volleyball field situated beneath the University of Chicago's sports stadium. Fermi was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize for Physics.