Herbert Potratz was an American chemist.
Potratz was born in 1902 in Iowa. He received a B.S., an M.S., and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Colorado, where he would also go on to teach.
In 1942, Potratz was hired to work on the Manhattan Project at the Chicago Met Lab. He started as a research associate and eventually worked his way up to become section chief of the Chemistry Division. In 1944, he went to Los Alamos, where he worked on plutonium research. After the war, Potratz taught at Washington University in St. Louis.
Potratz died in 1975 in St. Louis.
For more information and details about Potratz’s work at the Met Lab, please see the following reference: