David M. Dennison

PhysicistWashington, DC

Scientist

David M. Dennison was an American physicist and a member of the Target Committee that was tasked with chossing specific targets for the atomic bombing of Japan.

Dennison received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1924 and conducted research at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen. There he studied quantum mechanics and had associations with other visiting physicists such as Paul Dirac, Samuel Goudsmit, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, and George Uhlenbeck.

Dennison returned to Michigan in 1927 and joined the physics department under Harrison McAllister Randall. When World War II broke out, Dennison was assigned to work on the VT radio proximity fuse. In 1945, he was selected to be part of the Target Committee established by General Leslie R. Groves to select specific targets for the atomic bombing of Japan.

After the war, Dennison returned to Michigan and continued his research on molecular structure until his retirement in 1970.

David M. Dennison’s Timeline

1900 Apr 26th Born in Oberlin, Ohio.

1924 Received Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan.

1945 Member of the Target Committee for the atomic bombing of Japan.

19451970 Professor at the University of Michigan.

1976 Apr 3rd Died in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Related Profiles

Gilbert Plass

Chicago, IL

Gilbert Plass was a Canadian physicist. Plass was born in 1922 in Toronto. He received a B.S. in physics from Harvard University before being hired to work on the Manhattan Project at the Chicago Met Lab, where he worked as an associate physicist.

Victor H. Cullman

K-25 Plant

Attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.

Henry W. Newson

Chicago, IL

Henry W. Newson (1909-1978) was an American nuclear physicist. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1934, Newson received a fellowship to the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and worked with Ernest O.

Edward Purcell

Cambridge, MA

Edward Purcell (1912-1997) was an American physicist who won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, the eventual basis for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).