Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Marvin Fox

PhysicistColumbia University

MIT
Scientist
Dr. Marvin Fox

Dr. Marvin Fox (1910-1965) was an American physicist. As a Ph.D. student at Columbia University, Fox worked with Isidor Rabi and Harold Urey, with whom he collaborated on isotope separation studies.

In 1942, Fox was recruited to join the Radiation Laboratory (“Rad Lab”) at MIT. In 1944, he joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia. After the war, he served as Chairman of the Reactor Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he helped build the first reactor dedicated to peaceful uses of atomic energy.

Marvin’s son, David Fox, was five years old when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. An interview with David about his father’s work on the Manhattan Project can be found here.

Marvin Fox’s Timeline
1910 Feb 1st Born in Cleveland, Ohio.

1931 Received a B.S. from the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

1936 Received a Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University.

1942 Joined the Radiation Laboratory at MIT.

19441945 Worked on the Manhattan Project at the Substitute Alloy Materials Lab (SAM) at Columbia University.

1947 Joined Brookhaven National Laboratory as a senior scientist.

19521957 Served as Chairman of the Reactor Department at Brookhaven.

19571959 Appointed to the Italian Atomic Energy Commission in Rome.

1965 Mar 19th Died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California.

Related Profiles

Howard V. Rhude Jr.

Chicago, IL

Howard V. Rhude worked in the Metallurgy Department at Argonne National Laboratory until 1991 when he retired after 38 years.

James J. Nickson

Chicago, IL

James J. Nickson was a medical doctor and Section Chief of H-III Medical Industrial Hazards and Health Physics in the Health Division at the University of Chicago Met Lab.

David Holcomb

Oak Ridge, TN

David Holcomb is nuclear engineer who specializes in instrumentation and controls for the molten salt reactors at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Samuel Isaac Weissman

Los Alamos, NM

Sam Weissman (1912-2007) was an American chemist. Weissman was born in South Bend, Indiana. He received a B.