Leo Brewer (1919-2005) was an American chemist.
Brewer finished his undergraduate degree at CalTech in 1940. Determined to be a part of the American war effort, he finished his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in an incredible 28 months.
After receiving his degree in 1942, Professor Wendell Latimer recruited Brewer to join the Manhattan Project. Working at Berkeley, he conducted research on the properties of the newly discovered, top-secret element plutonium. His research there would lead to the creation of cesium sulfide crucibles that would later be used at Los Alamos.
After the war, Brewer became a professor at Berkeley, and a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL.) Sadly, he developed cancer in 1960 as the result of exposure to the element beryllium. He underwent a radical, lifesaving surgery that cost him his right eye.