Government Official

Lee A. DuBridge (1901-1994) was an American physicist and administrator and the founding director of the Radiation Laboratory at MIT. DuBridge was born on September 21, 1901 in Terre Haute, Indiana. After receiving a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1926, DuBridge taught physics at Washington University in St. Louis and at […]

Robert Lamphere (1918-2002) supervised many investigations of Soviet spies during the Cold War. He served as the FBI’s liaison to the top-secret Venona Project, which worked to break Soviet codes and revealed the extent of Soviet espionage in the United States. His early espionage cases focused on those who attempted to infiltrate the Manhattan Project. […]

Abraham L. Longfield was a Procurement and Property Officer for the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory (“Met Lab”) during the Manhattan Project.

William R. Purnell (1886-1955) was a Rear Admiral in the US Navy and served as the Navy liaison on the Military Policy Committee for the Manhattan Project. He also represented the Navy on Tinian Island. Purnell graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1908 and served in World War I, earning the Navy Cross for […]

Richard Tolman (1881-1948) was an American physicist and chemist. Starting in 1940, Tolman served as Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) and was also the Chairman of the Armor and Ordnance Division of the NDRC. He was in charge of the coordination of the massive scientific component of the United States war effort. […]

Lt. Col. James C. Stowers was an engineer in the Army Corps of Engineers and became the unit chief for the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant.  Stowers and his staff of officers were headquartered in the Woolworth Building in New York. Stowers negotiated the divide between civilian and military contributors, and worked intimately with the Kellex […]

William Lewis "Bud" Uanna played a critical role in maintaining security of the atomic bomb project. Uanna graduated from Officer Candidate School at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia in November 1942. As a 2nd Lt. in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, he was assigned to Military Intelligence, Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC). He held several posts […]

Donald “Don” Hornig (1920-2013) was an American chemist. Hornig was recruited to join the laboratory at Los Alamos in 1944, just one year after receiving his doctorate in physcial chemistry from Harvard University. He designed the electrical switching device for the implosion bomb, which required 32 detonations around a spherical device to occur within less […]

Clarence Decatur “C.D.” Howe was Canada’s Minister of Munitions and Supply during World War II. He is credited with turning the Canadian economy from one based primarily on agriculture to one based on industry. Born in Waltham, Massachusetts, Howe received a B.S. in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and later moved to […]

Patricia Cox Owen joined the Manhattan Project in 1942, where she worked as a secretary for General Groves on the fifth floor of the New War building in Washington, D.C.  When Groves interviewed Patty in 1942, she was only eighteen years old. He empashized that she would have to work hard to measure up to […]