Via Panisperna boys

Who is Via Panisperna boys?

The Via Panisperna boys were a group of young scientists led by Enrico Fermi. In Rome in 1934, they made the famous discovery of slow neutrons which later made possible the nuclear reactor, and then the construction of the first atomic bomb. The nickname of the group comes from the address of the Physics Institute, at the University of Rome La Sapienza. The Via Panisperna, a street of Rione Monti in the city center, got its name from a nearby monastery, San Lorenzo in Panisperna.

The other members of the group were Edoardo Amaldi, Oscar D'Agostino, Ettore Majorana, Bruno Pontecorvo, Franco Rasetti and Emilio Segrè. All of them were physicists, except for D'Agostino who was a chemist.