Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Lawrence Bartell was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan on February 2, 1923. In 1944, after completing his studies at the University of Michigan, Bartell joined Glenn Seaborg's uranium research team. At Chicago, he researched plutonium extraction and decontamination. He was then drafted into the Navy, and not returned to the Manhattan project. Discharged on disability, Bartell traveled to the site of the Trinity test, where he collected glass remnants created by the explosion.

Bartell was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for many years. He published over 350 scientific articles. In 2014 he published a memoir, True Stories of Strange Events and odd People.

Lawrence Bartell’s Timeline
1923 Feb 23rd Born.

1944 Hired by Glenn Seaborg to work at the Metropolitan Lab.

Related Profiles

Lyman Briggs

Washington, DC

Lyman Briggs (1874-1963) was an American engineer, physicist and administrator.  In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt called on Briggs to head the newly established the Uranium Committee, a secret project to investigate the atomic fission of uranium, as a result of the Einstein-Szilard Letter.

Charles E. Thompson

Oak Ridge, TN

Thompson worked for Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation.

Elmer Eades

Los Alamos, NM

James C. White

Y-12 Plant

James White worked for the Tennessee Eastman Corporation at the Y-12 Plant.