Iral B. Johns

ChemistLos Alamos, NM

Ames, IATrinity Site

Manhattan Project VeteranScientistTrinity Test Eyewitness

Iral B. Johns (1902-1987) was an American chemist.

An associate professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, Iral B. Johns joined the Manhattan Project in 1942 as a director of the plutonium proejct at the Ames, Iowa laboratory. Johns was immediately transferred to Los Alamos in 1943 to continue working on the Manhattan Project. He investigated methods of removing fission products from uranium. Eventually, he became the group leader of a chemistry group working with polonium. Johns was one of the official observers at the Trinity test site.

Iral B. Johns’s Timeline

1902 Born.

1930 Graduated from Knox College magna cum laude.

1942 Became director of the plutonium project at the Ames laboratory.

1943 Moved to Los Alamos.

1987 Died.

Related Profiles

Boris Pash

Alsos Mission

Boris Pash (1900 – 1995) was a United States military intelligence officer who commanded the Alsos Mission during World War II.

R. B. Keene

T-Plant/200 Areas

Keene worked in the 200 East area at Hanford during the Manhattan Project.

Karl Walther

Manhattan, NY

Karl Walther was a glassblower for Columbia University and Brookhaven National Laboratory. During the Manhattan Project, Walther worked as a senior glassblower at the Nash Garage Building at Columbia, where scientists developed the gaseous diffusion process.

William D. Steadman

Chicago, IL

William Steadman was a guard at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago during the Manhattan Project.