Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Jesse Beams

PhysicistUniversity of Virginia

Manhattan Project VeteranScientist
Jesse Beams

Jesse Beams (1898-1977) was an American physicist.

Beams worked on the Manhattan Project through his research on centrifuges.  His ultracentrifuge was used to demonstrate the separation of U-235.  During the war, officials concluded his method was not likely to produce enough enriched uranium in the time needed, and gaseous diffusion was pursued instead.  In later years, the method became the most efficient way to separate uranium isotopes.

According to Harold Familant, who had Dr. Beams as a research advisor at the University of Virginia, Dr. Beams spent a lot of his time at the Oak Ridge Laboratory where his centrifuges were being used. After the war, the centrifuge method was perfected by German scientists in the Soviet Union. Beams continued work on the gas centrifuge program, and worked as a consultant to the AEC even after his retirement from academia in 1969. He is also known for developing a method for a more precise measurement of the gravitational constant G.

Jesse Beams’s Timeline
1898 Dec 25th Born in Belle Plaine, Kansas.

1921 Graduated from Fairmount College, Kansas with a B.S. in physics.

1922 Received an M.A. in physics from the University of Wisconsin.

1925 Received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Virginia.

19251928 Worked with Ernest Lawrence at Yale, conducting experiments regarding the quantized nature of light.

1928 Returned to the University of Virginia to lead the team developing the ultracentrifuge.

19481962 Chaired the physics department at the University of Virginia.

1969 Retired from academia and worked as a consulted to the Atomic Energy Commission.

1967 Awarded National Medal of Science.

1977 Jul 23rd Died in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Related Profiles

Annie Hawkins

Los Alamos, NM

R. H. Whitehead

Tinian Island

R. H. Whitehead served in the 509th Headquarters.

T. A. Smith

Y-12 Plant

T. A. Smith worked for the Tennessee Eastman Corporation at the Y-12 Plant.

Clara B. Easter

Oak Ridge, TN

Easter worked in the United States Engineer District Office.