Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

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).

Purcell worked on microwave radiation at the MIT Rad Lab during World War II, and was briefly involved in some of the Trinity test preparations.

He was close to J. Robert Oppenheimer after the war when both were at Harvard University, and was with him when the United States conducted its first test of a hydrogen bomb. He also had a positive relationship with Manhattan Project physicist Herbert York, whom he praised for his own efforts to chronicle the project as well as his work on the early American space program.

Edward Purcell’s Timeline
1912 Aug 30th Born in Taylorville, IL.

1933 Received a B.S.E.E. from Purdue University

1938 Received a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University.

19431945 Worked on microwave radar at the MIT Radiation Laboratory as part of the war effort.

1952 Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, the eventual basis for MRI.

1997 Mar 7th Died in Cambridge, MA.

Related Profiles

Theodore Hall

Los Alamos, NM

Theodore “Ted” Hall (1925-1999) was an American physicist and an atomic spy who passed along detailed information about the implosion-type “Fat Man” bomb and several processes for purifying plutonium to the Soviet Union.

Philip Morrison

Los Alamos, NM

Philip Morrison (1915-2005) was an American physicist. Morrison studied under J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley, and received his Ph.

Norris Bradbury

Los Alamos, NM

Norris Bradbury (1909-1997) was an American physicist and director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1945-1970.

Elwin H. Covey

X-10 Graphite Reactor

Elwin Covey was an assistant and protégé to Glenn Seaborg, and spent most of his time with the Manhattan Project at the X-10 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.