Fermi and Astrophysics

Many events were organized all over the world in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Enrico Fermi, covering his activities in particle physics, nuclear physics, statistical mechanics and quantum statistics. A 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 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 developments by active scientists working in each field; this analysis also appears in the proceedings. In some cases, contributions from young researchers about more recent PhD theses relevant to the topic at hand concluded the session.