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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Eric L. Simmons

Associate BiologistChicago, IL

Manhattan Project VeteranScientist
Sketch of Chicago Pile-1 by Melvin A. Miller

Eric L. Simmons (1917-2014) was an American biologist. Simmons was born on February 11, 1917 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He received a B.S. from Swarthmore College in 1938.

After receiving a Ph.D. from Indiana University, Simmons joined the Manhattan Project at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago. At the Met Lab, he worked with a group studying the effects of radiation on plants and animals.

After the war, Simmons taught radiation biology at the University of Chicago until his retirement in 1985.

Simmons died on October 14, 2014 in Bloomington, IN. 

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