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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Richard Tolman (1881-1948) was an American physicist and chemist.

Starting in 1940, Tolman served as Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) and was also the Chairman of the Armor and Ordnance Division of the NDRC. He was in charge of the coordination of the massive scientific component of the United States war effort. Tolman was appointed as chief scientific adviser to General Leslie Groves, and his voice carried serious weight in Groves’ decisions about the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb. Before his death in 1948, Tolman worked as scientific adviser to the U.S. representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

Richard Tolman’s Timeline
1881 Mar 4th Born in West Newton, Massachusetts.

1910 Received his Ph.D in Physical Chemistry from MIT.

19171918 Served as the Chief of the Dispersoid section of the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I.

1940 Appointed Vice-Chairman of the NDRC.

19421946 Served as chief technical adviser to General Leslie Groves on the Manhattan Project.

1948 Sep 5th Died in Pasadena, California.

Leslie Groves, Richard Tolman and Robert Bacher

Tolman seated on the right-hand side. 1946. Courtesy of Cal Tech.

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