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ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
News of the JFI
Physicist Ugo Fano dies at 88
March 15, 2001
Ugo Fano, Professor Emeritus in Physics and the James Franck
Institute, whose pioneering contributions to the theory of atomic
and radiation physics helped lead to the development of the gas
laser and the use of radiation in medical diagnosis and therapy,
died Tuesday, Feb. 13, in Chicago. He was 88.
Fano dedicated much of his work to achieving a better understanding
of the dynamics of atoms and molecules and the way they interact
with light, electrons and each other. His influence in the field
of physics is reflected in the number of phenomena that bear his
name: the “Beutler-Fano Profile,” the “Fano-Lichten
Mechanism,” the “Fano Effect,” and the “Fano-Factor.”
“He was a foremost leader in theoretical atomic physics,
and not just in the United States, but all over the world,”
said Mitio Inokuti, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory
in Illinois.
Inokuti noted that Fano began his career working with Enrico
Fermi at the University of Rome from 1934 to 1936. Fermi, a 1938
Nobel laureate in physics, led a group of scientists at the University
to produce the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain
reaction in 1942.
Fano maintained the tradition and style of Fermi physics, said
Inokuti, who recently finished editing a special volume of the
journal Physics Essays, which is dedicated to Fano’s work.
“He was not very much interested in abstract programs. He
was always close to experimental facts and he was a great interpreter
of many experimental facts. That, he inherited from Enrico Fermi.”
A prime example of Fano’s ability to analyze experimental
data was the paper he wrote about the spectra––the distinctive
electromagnetic radiation appearing at particular wavelengths––of
the hydrogen molecule measured by Gerhard Herzberg, who would
later receive the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Fano developed a novel
theoretical description for hydrogen molecule spectra based on
his analysis of another scientist’s pioneering work on atoms,
said Anthony Starace (Ph.D., ’71), a professor of physics
at the University of Nebraska.
“Fano’s analysis of the vastly more complex molecular
spectra was theoretically beautiful and gave predictions in perfect
accord with experimental measurements,” Starace said. Fano
and a former student, Ravi Rau (Ph.D., ’71), of Louisiana
State University, subsequently developed the analysis into the
book Atomic Collisions and Spectra, published in 1986.
Fano came to the University in 1966 as a Professor in Physics
and the James Franck Institute. He served as Chairman of the Physics
Department from 1972 to 1974. He produced approximately 30 Ph.D.
students, most of who currently serve as faculty members active
in the field of atomic physics.
Fano was born in Torino, Italy, on July 28, 1912. He earned his
doctoral degree in mathematics from the University of Torino in
1934, then began working with Enrico Fermi. Fano returned to the
University of Rome as a lecturer in 1938, but fled with his family
to the United States in 1939 to escape fascist Italy. He worked
at the Washington Biophysical Institute, the Carnegie Institution
of Washington and the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory
from 1939 to 1945, and at the National Bureau of Standards from
1946 to 1966.
Fano received the Enrico Fermi Award in a White House ceremony
in 1996. His many other awards include election as a foreign member
to the Royal Society of London in 1995, and to the Accademia Nazionale
dei Lincei in 1993.
Fano’s wife of 62 years, Camilla Lattes Fano, a retired
teacher of the Laboratory Schools, survives him. Also surviving
Fano are two daughters, Mary Fano Giacomoni, a secretary in the
Department of Chemistry; and Virginia Fano Ghattas of Wellesley,
Mass.; four grandchildren, John Anthony Giacomoni and Carlo Giacomoni,
both of Urbana, Ill.; Tamara Ghattas, a second-year student at
the University; and Peter Ghattas of Wellesley, Mass.; and a brother,
Robert Fano, of Concord, Mass.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 5, in
the Max Palevsky Cinema at Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St.
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