Arthur Compton

Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1927) for discovery of the effect named after him.

Later years

In 1941, along with Vannevar Bush, head of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), and Ernest Lawrence, the Berkeley inventor of the cyclotron, Compton helped to take over the then-stagnant American program to develop an atomic bomb. Compton was placed in charge of the OSRD's S-1 Committee charged with investigating the properties and manufacture of uranium. In 1942, Compton appointed Robert Oppenheimer as the Committee's top theorist. When the Committee's work was taken over by the Army in the summer of 1942, it became the Manhattan Project.

Related Topics:
1941 - Vannevar Bush - Office of Scientific Research and Development - Ernest Lawrence - Berkeley - Cyclotron - Atomic bomb - Uranium - 1942 - Robert Oppenheimer - Theorist - Army - Manhattan Project

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Immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Compton gained support for consolidating plutonium research at the University of Chicago and for an ambitious schedule that called for producing the first atomic bomb in January 1945, a goal that was missed by only six months. "Metallurgical Laboratory" or "Met Lab" was the "cover" name given to Compton's facility. Its objectives were to produce chain-reacting "piles" of uranium to convert to plutonium, find ways to separate the plutonium from the uranium and to design a bomb. In December 1942, underneath Chicago's Stagg Field, a team of Met Lab scientists directed by Enrico Fermi achieved a sustained chain reaction in the world's first nuclear reactor. Throughout the war, Compton would remain a prominent scientific advisor and administrator.

Related Topics:
Japan - Pearl Harbor - December 7 - 1941 - Plutonium - University of Chicago - 1945 - Metallurgical Laboratory - Chain-reacting - 1942 - Chicago - Stagg Field - Enrico Fermi - Nuclear reactor

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