Many things bear Fermi 's name . These include the Fermilab particle accelerator and physics lab in Batavia , Illinois , which was renamed in his honor in 1974 , and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope , which was named after him in 2008 , in recognition of his work on cosmic rays . Three nuclear reactor installations have been named after him : the Fermi 1 and Fermi 2 nuclear power plants in Newport , Michigan , the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant at Trino Vercellese in Italy , and the RA-1 Enrico Fermi research reactor in Argentina . A synthetic element isolated from the debris of the 1952 Ivy Mike nuclear test was named fermium , in honor of Fermi 's contributions to the scientific community . This makes him one of 16 scientists who have elements named after them
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike
Enrico Fermi