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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Jasper B. Jeffries

PhysicistChicago, IL

Manhattan, NY
African-AmericanManhattan Project VeteranScientist
Jasper B. Jeffries sits in a portrait style in front of a chalk board

Jasper Brown Jeffries was an American physicist.

Jeffries was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on April 15, 1912. He received a B.S. from West Virginia State College and an M.S. in physical sciences from the University of Chicago. From 1943 to 1946, Jeffries worked as a physicist on the Manhattan Project at the Met Lab at the University of Chicago. He was one of the only African-American scientists to work on the project.

Jeffries was one of seventy scientists and workers at the Met Lab to sign the Szilard Petition, a document written by Leo Szilard petitioning President Truman to avoid dropping the atomic bombs on Japan.

After the war, Jeffries taught as a professor of physics at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. He also worked as an engineer for the Control Instrument Company. Jeffries later taught as a professor of mathematics at Westchester Community College.

At the age of eighty-two, Jeffries died on July 16, 1994, in White Plains, NY.

If you would like to learn more about Jeffries, there are two episodes of the RADIO(active) Waves podcast about him that are available here:

Black History Month 2021: Jasper B. Jeffries

Black History Month 2022: Jasper Jeffries Revisited

 

 

 

Jasper B. Jeffries’s Timeline
1912 Apr 15th Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

1933 Received a B.S. from West Virginia State College.

1940 Received an M.S. in physical sciences from the University of Chicago .

19431946 Worked on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago.

1994 Jul 16th Died in in White Plains, NY.

Professor Jasper B. Jeffries

Photo courtesy of the Harold L. Drimmer Library at Westchester Community College

Jasper Jeffries with coworkers from the Chicago Met Lab.

Jasper Jeffries is visible in the back row, third from the right

Professor Jasper B. Jeffries is honored at a Black History Month celebration in 1983 at Westchester Community College.

Photo courtesy of the Harold L. Drimmer Library at Westchester Community College

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