Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

John Weil was a member of the Special Engineer Detachment serving at Los Alamos from early 1943 through the end of the war. Weil had studied mechanical engineering through the Army Specialized Training Program at Ohio State University. He was assigned to Maj. Gerald Ackerman at Los Alamos for whom he performed a wide variety of tasks: heat transfer problems, pouring high explosive castings at S Site, and even driving 6 x 6’s and jeeps. While at Los Alamos, Weil assisted in development of the explosive lenses in the Fat Man plutonium-fueled atomic weapon. 

Married to Lucille S. Weil, a nurse.

Related Profiles

Wilcox P. Overbeck

Chicago, IL

Wilcox P. Overbeck was a research associate and instrumentation designer at the Chicago Met Lab. He was responsible for calling out the neutron count when Chicago Pile-1 went critical on December 2, 1942.

John A. Karas

K-25 Plant

Attended Lehigh University.

Richard O. Jones

K-25 Plant

Attended Cornell University.

G. V. Collin

Hanford, WA