John Shacter

Chemical EngineerOak Ridge, TN

Columbia UniversityK-25 Plant

EngineerEuropean RefugeeManhattan Project Veteran

Listen to John Shacter’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

John Shacter was born in Austria and immigrated to the United States after Hitler came to power in Germany. After receiving a chemical engineering degree from University of Pennsylvania in 1943, he was hired by Union Carbide to work on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University. He then transferred to the K-25 Plant in Oak Ridge, where he was involved in overhauling the plant and greatly reducing the cost of uranium, advancements that helped make the modern nuclear industry possible.

John Shacter’s Timeline

1938 Arrived in the United States from Austria.

1943 Hired to work on the Manhattan Project.

1944 Moved from Oak Ridge to Columbia to continue working on the Manhattan Project.

Related Profiles

Louis F. Jacot

Los Alamos, NM

Harrie Massey

University of California, Berkeley

Harrie Massey (1908-1983) was an Australian physicist. A brilliant student of physics, Massey arrived from his native Australia at Cambridge College in the United Kingdom on an academic scholarship.

Robert L. Wells

Chicago, IL

Robert Wells was a patent attorney at the Chicago Met Lab during the Manhattan Project.

Jane Roberg

Los Alamos, NM

Jane Roberg was an American physicist. She earned a Ph.D. from Duke University and was working at the University of California when she was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.