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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Morton Camac (1923-2012) was an American physicist.

Camac graduated from the University of Chicago in 1943 and stayed there to work under Enrico Fermi on the Chicago Pile-1 nuclear reactor. He was then sent to Los Alamos to join a team that was calculating the amount of uranium required for the bomb. 

Camac was stationed on Tinian and was put on the Fat Man Pit Team. He helped insert the plutonium into Fat Man and then stood on the runway with a radiation detector to measure any emissions if the bombers crashed immediately after takeoff. 

After the war, Camac went to Cornell University to receive his Ph.D and taught for many years at the University of Rochester. 

Morton Camac’s Timeline
1923 Mar 20th Born in Brooklyn, NY.

1943 Received a B.S. in physics from the University of Chicago.

1943 Worked under Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago to measure the atomic properties of uranium and plutonium.

1944 Transferred from the University of Chicago to the Los Alamos project site.

1945 Transferred to the Tinian Island Airfield.

2012 Apr 12th Died in Lexington, MA.

Morton Camac and a B-29

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