Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Howard “Howie” Wilcox was an American physicist. He studied at the University of Minnesota and was a teaching fellow at Harvard when he was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. He went together with his wife, Evie Wilcox, who worked as a machinist at Los Alamos. He later remembered, “As a result of that experience I became totally (though unconsciously) imbued with the knowledge and attitude that just about any reasonable technical objective can be realized in just a few months by a motivated team of knowledgeable young people guided by progress- and results-oriented managers backed up with adequate financial support from on high.”

 

After the war, Wilcox went with Enrico Fermi to the University of Chicago where he earned a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. He went on to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. He also worked at the Naval Ordnance Test Station in China Lake, California.

 

Related Profiles

Earl Sarver

Hanford, WA

Lorenzo H. Adams

Y-12 Plant

Lorenzo Adams worked for the Tennessee Eastman Corporation at the Y-12 Plant.

Charles Robert Emigh

Los Alamos, NM

Bob Emigh was in the Navy and worked with Deak Parsons on telemetry for the bombs. He was assigned as the science officer for the planned third bomb.

Robert J. Dowling

Tinian Island

Robert J. Dowling served as a staff sergeant in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron. He was a member of the ground crew regularly assigned to the B-29 Laggin’ Dragon.