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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Hyman Goldsmith

PhysicistChicago, IL

Manhattan Project VeteranScientist

Hyman H. Goldsmith (1907-1949) was an American physicist.

In 1943, Goldsmith became coordinator of information for the Metallurgical Lab in Chicago. After Hiroshima, when the existence of the atomic bomb became public knowledge, Goldsmith was one of many atomic scientists who advocated for control nuclear weapons. After the war, he helped establish the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists with John Simpson and Eugene Rabinowitch. He served as a co-editor with Rabinowitch until his death. While he never wrote an article for the Bulletin, he was a vigilant editor and worked long-hours to perfect others’ works. He also worked as chief of the information and publications division at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York after the war.

On August 7, 1949, Hyman died tragically at the age of 42 after being swept over a waterfall while swimming in the West River in Vermont.

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