Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Wendell Edwards

Columbia University
African-American

Wendell Edwards was born in Snow Hill, Alabama in 1907. Although his father was the founder of Snow Hill Institute in 1893, He graduated from Laurinburg Institute in 1925. From there he attended Talladega College, and graduated with a degree in Mathematics and Physics. He later attended Columbia University during the formation of the Manhattan Project, and graduated with a Masters Degree in Mathematics and Physics. He did research under Professors Fermi, Szilard, Zinn, and Anderson. His identification card listed him as a Junior Physicist. He died on May 25, 1975.

Related Profiles

Eric Jette

Los Alamos, NM

Eric Jette (1897-1963) was an American metallurgist.  He was a professor of metallurgy at Columbia University School of Mines before being recruited for the Manhattan Project.

Maria Goeppert-Mayer

Columbia University

Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972) was a German-born American theoretical physicist and 1963 Nobel Prize winner.

Floyd Owen Slate

Decatur, IL

Professor Floyd Owen Slate (1920-2008) worked on the Manhattan Project at Decatur, IL and at Columbia University.

Klaus Fuchs

Los Alamos, NM

Klaus Fuchs (1911-1988) was a German theoretical physicist and spy who worked at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.