J. Samuel Walker

HistorianWashington, DC

Expert

Listen to J. Samuel Walker’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

J. Samuel (“Sam”) Walker is the former historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the author of Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs against Japan. He is also the author of five books on the history of regulating nuclear power, including Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective and The Road to Yucca Mountain: The Development of Radioactive Waste Policy in the United States.

Related Profiles

Kenji Shiga

Japan

Kenji Shiga was the director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum from 2013-2019. As director, Shiga greets foreign dignitaries visiting Hiroshima, including then-United States President Barack Obama in 2016.

Martin Mandelberg

Washington, DC

Martin Mandelberg is an engineer and mathematician. He is currently writing a biography about his mentor, Richard Hamming.

Niels Bohr

Los Alamos, NM

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) was a Danish physicist and winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics. Bohr began his work on the Manhattan Project after fleeing to Sweden from Denmark because of German occupation in 1943.

Isabella Karle

Washington, DC

Isabella Karle (1921-2017) was a pioneer in the scientific field of crystallography. Her work on molecular structures had a sweeping influence across many scientific fields by allowing, for example, scientists to study nerve transmissions and aiding chemists in synthesizing pest repellents.