Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Rose Bethe and her husband, Nobel Prize winner Hans Bethe, moved to Los Alamos in early 1943 when Hans was appointed leader of the Theoretical Division for the Manhattan Project.

During the initial stages of the Project, Rose worked in the housing office, where she assigned incoming scientists and their families to houses and showed them where site facilities were located. When Rose became pregnant with her first child, Henry, she resigned her position to help physicist Bruno Rossi wire electronics boards. The Bethes developed a close relationship with Rudolf and Eugenia Peierls, who arrived in Los Alamos after the British Mission joined the Manhattan Project in 1944.

After the war, the Bethes returned to Ithaca, New York and Hans resumed his professorship at Cornell University.

Rose Bethe’s Timeline
1917 Mar 20th Born in Munich, Germany.

19361939 Attended Smith College and Cornell University.

1939 Married Hans Bethe.

1943 Arrived at Los Alamos, where she helped assign housing units to incoming Manhattan Project scientists.

1946 Returned to Ithaca, NY with Hans, who remained a Professor of Physics at Cornell for the rest of his career.

Rose Bethe’s Los Alamos ID badge photo

Hans and Rose Bethe at the 1967 Nobel Prize Ceremony

Related Profiles

John L. O’Gara

Oak Ridge, TN

John O’Gara worked for the United States Engineer District Office.

J.S. Sayer

Hanford, WA

Austin E. Johnston

Oak Ridge, TN

Austin Johnston worked for the United States Engineer District Office.

Odis L. Lee

Los Alamos, NM