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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Melvin L. Brooks

Engineer, Project StaffLos Alamos, NM

Manhattan Project Veteran

Melvin L. Brooks was born in 1918. He was a senior leader and chemical engineer at the Los Alamos Lab. He worked under the leadership of Robert Oppenheimer, Norris Bradbury, Harold Agnew, and Duncan MacDougall. Brooks arrived at Los Alamos in 1944, with his wife and son.

After the war, he continued to contribute to the development and research of nuclear weapons in the United States. He remained working at Los Alamos. He worked in many positions at Los Alamos, including: Group Leader of X-2, GMX-2, and GMX-3, as well as Associate Division Leader, and Alternate Division Leader. He then served on the Director’s Staff in the 1980s.

He later became the director of the MIT Center for Space Research. Brooks passed away on May 12, 2014.

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