The People Behind The Manhattan Project

Here are some of the people central to the Manhattan Project that you should know about.

Albert Einstein

Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist known for his work on gravity, E=mc², and the quantum theory among other things.

Arthur Compton

Nobel prize winning physicist known for his demonstration of the particle nature of light.

Edward Teller

Hungarian-American theoretical physicist known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb".

Emilio Segrè

Nobel prize winning physicist known for his discovery of the antiproton, technetium and astatine.

Enrico Fermi

Nobel prize winning physicist known for contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics.

Ernest Lawrence

Nobel prize winning physicist known for his invention of the cyclotron among other things.

Eugene Wigner

Nobel prize winning theoretical and mathematical physicist known for his contributions to the development of the mathematical framework of quantum mechanics, and of nuclear and particle physics, as well as ground-breaking work in pure mathematics.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The 32nd president of the United States of America.

Glenn T. Seaborg

Nobel prize winning chemist known for his contributions to the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements.

Hans Bethe

Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist known for his contributions to the development of nuclear physics, astrophysics, quantum electrodynamics, and solid-state physics.

Harry S. Truman

The 33rd president of the United States of America.

Herbert York

American nuclear physicist who held various research and administrative positions at US government and educational institutes.

James Conant

American chemist known for his work on organic chemistry, who became the chairman of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) of the United States.

James Chadwick

Nobel prize winning physicist, a student of Ernest Rutherford ("Father of Nuclear Physics"), known for his discovery of the neutron, among other things.

James Franck

Nobel prize winning physicist known for his work on quantum physics.

Joseph Rotblat

A physicist who won the Nobel peace prize for his campaigning for nuclear disarmament.

Klaus Fuchs

Theoretical physicist who worked on nuclear physics.

Leo Szilard

Hungarian-German-American physicist and inventor known for his conception of the nuclear chain reaction among other things.

Leslie Groves

A US Army Corps of Engineers officer who directed the Manhattan Project.

Lewis Strauss

American businessman and naval officer who served two terms on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the second as its chairman.

Luis Alvarez

Nobel prize winning experimental physicist known for his discovery of resonance states in particle physics among other things.

Niels Bohr

Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist known for his foundational contributions to the understanding of atomic structure and quantum theory.

Paul Dirac

Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist considered as one of the founders of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics.

Richard Feynman

Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist known for his foundational work in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory, solid state physics, nanotechnology, to count a few among many other things. He was also a brilliant teacher and a charismatic public speaker.

Robert J. Oppenheimer

American theoretical physicist, the "Father of the Atomic Bomb", is known for his work on nuclear weapons development as well as contributions to the theory of neutron stars and black holes, quantum field theory, and the interactions of cosmic rays.

Robert Serber

American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. 

Vannevar Bush

American engineer, inventor and science administrator, known for his work on analog computers and for the memex.