Sheffield Gordon was an associate chemist at the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory (“Met Lab”) during the Manhattan Project.
Gordon was one of seventy scientists to sign the Szilard Petition, a document written by Leo Szilard petitioning President Truman to avoid using the atomic bombs on Japan.
Gordon graduated from the University of Chicago in 1937 with a B.S. in chemistry. During World War II, he worked in the Met Lab’s Chemistry Division. He worked Group 2 – Radiation Chemistry under A. O. Allen. One of his responsibilities was to collect and discuss the evidence of the Winger effect in beryllia.
Following the war, he worked at Argonne National Laboratory, the successor of the Met Lab. Gordon worked at Argonne for more than forty-two years.
On August 1, 1994, Sheffield Gordon passed away.
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