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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Lyle B. Borst

Physicist, Research AssociateChicago, IL

Oak Ridge, TN
Manhattan Project VeteranProject Worker/Staff
Chicago Pile-1

Lyle B. Borst was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. Borst was born on November 24, 1912 in Chicago. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Borst was a research associate at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago during the Manhattan Project. Later in the war he worked at Oak Ridge.

In 1950 Borst oversaw the construction of the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor in Upton, New York. Soon after, Borst began teaching at the University of Utah. He later taught at New York University and the State University of New York at Buffalo. 

Scientific Contributions

In 1952 helped explain supernova. He found that the fusion of two helium nuclei creates beryllium 7. This occurs after a star has used up its hydrogen supply. The reaction releases a huge amount of energy that results in a supernova. 

Borst died on July 30, 2002 in Williamsville, NY. 

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