Enrico Fermi was an Italian-American Nobel Prize-winning physicist who made significant contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics. He is best known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, which led to the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. He also made important contributions to the development of the atomic bomb. Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work on the development of the nuclear reactor.