Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Barbara B. Starner

Reactor OperatorLos Alamos, NM

Manhattan Project VeteranSpouse to Manhattan Project Worker

Barbara Brennan Joanides arrived in Los Alamos in May of 1945 with her husband who worked on the project.  

Joanides worked at Omega Site as the first female reactor operator in Los Alamos, controlling the fuel rods by hand. After the war, she divorced and married John Starner, who she met at Omega Site. The couple had four children and lived a happy life in Los Alamos.

Barbara passed away in 1991.

Barbara B. Starner’s Timeline
1922 Born in Massachusetts.

1945 May Arrived in Los Alamos, where she worked as one of the first female reactor operators at Omega Site.

Related Profiles

Carol L. Cooley

Los Alamos, NM

Eugene L. Nooker

Tinian Island

Eugene L. Nooker worked as a part of Project Alberta, the team that transported and assembled the two atomic bombs preceeding the August 1945 bombing missions on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Eleanor Phillips

Chicago, IL

Eleanor Phillips was a laboratory assistant at the Chicago Met Lab during the Manhattan Project. She worked in Section C-II of the Chemistry Division.

Aubrey C. Robinson

Tinian Island

Aubrey C. Robinson served in the First Ordnance Squadron.