For additional information on research and advocacy leading up to the Manhattan Project, see the Nuclear Fission, 1938–1942 topic guide. Show
ContentsResources Advisory Committee on Uranium, October 1939-1940 Committee/Section on Uranium, June 1940-January 1942 National Academy of Sciences review committee, April-November 1941 OSRD Section S-1, January-June 1942 Manhattan Project Timeline, 1942-43 Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, 1942 Chicago Metallurgical Project, 1943-1946 Project Y: Los Alamos Laboratory Los Alamos Organization, March 1943-August 1944 Los Alamos Organization, August 1944-August 1945 Other Los Alamos Staff in PHN, 1943-1946 ResourcesThe official history, Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Volume I: The New World, 1939-1946 (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962) is a detailed introduction to the various technical and administrative facets of the Manhattan Project. Also see the well developed history pages at the Los Alamos National Laboratory website, including a large collection of wartime staff badge photos. Advisory Committee on Uranium, October 1939-June 1940This ad hoc committee was established in October 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt to monitor and advise the government and military with respect to research on nuclear fission. Chairman:Lyman Briggs Colonel Keith Adamson, United States Army Commander Gilbert Hoover, United States Navy In June 1940 a technical subcommittee was added: Harold Urey Ross Gunn George Pegram Merle Tuve Jesse Beams Gregory Breit Committee/Section on Uranium, June 1940-January 1942In June 1940 President Roosevelt created the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) to be chaired by Vannevar Bush. The Advisory Committee on Uranium was absorbed into the NDRC, reorganized, and renamed. Because the NDRC was an explicitly civilian organization, the military members of the committee were dropped. In June 1941 President Roosevelt created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to be directed by Bush. James Conant became head of the NDRC, which was now within the OSRD, and the committee became one fo a number of "sections" under the NDRC. Chairman:Lyman Briggs (June 1940-January 1942) Vice Chairman:George Pegram (June 1940-January 1942) Ross Gunn (June 1940-September 1941) Merle Tuve (June 1940-September 1941) Harold Urey (June 1940-January 1942) Jesse Beams (June 1940-January 1942) Gregory Breit (September 1941-January 1942) Samuel Allison (September 1941-January 1942) Edward Condon (September 1941-January 1942) Henry Smyth (September 1941-January 1942) Lloyd Smith (September 1941-January 1942) National Academy of Sciences review committee, April-November 1941In April 1941 Vannevar Bush asked National Academy of Sciences president Frank Jewett to create a committee to review progress in fission research and advise regarding future work. Chairman:Arthur Compton (April to November) Ernest Lawrence (April to November) John Van Vleck (April to November) William Coolidge (April to November) Oliver Buckley (June to November) L. Warrington Chubb (June to November) Warren Lewis (September to November) George Kistiakowsky (September to November) Robert Mulliken (September to November) OSRD Section S-1, January-June 1942In January 1942, Vannevar Bush reorganized the Section on Uranium, renamed Section "S-1", into a vigorous program to drive toward the development of an atomic weapon. The section was removed from the NDRC and made an independent organization within the OSRD. In June 1942, the leaders of Section S-1 became the S-1 "executive committee" responsible for overseeing the relationship between the OSRD and what was increasingly an army-directed project. Section S-1 Chariman:Lyman Briggs NDRC Chairman:James Conant Section S-1 Planning Board Chief:Eger Murphree Secton S-1 Program Chief:Harold Urey Section S-1 Program Chief:Ernest Lawrence Section S-1 Project Chief:Arthur Compton Manhattan Project Timeline, 1942-1943January 1942Arthur Compton decides to consolidate research on slow-neutron chain reaction into a new "Metallurgical Laboratory" to be located on the University of Chicago campus. March 1942The OSRD initiates contact with the U. S. Army to turn over construction of bomb production facilities to their authority. June 1942J. Robert Oppenheimer is placed in charge of fast-neutron research, replacing Gregory Breit. The U. S. Army places Col. James Marshall of the Army Corps of Engineers in charge of constructing production facilities for bomb materials. The Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation is chose as primary contractor for the project, and the Tennessee River Valley is first considered a strong candidate for a production plant. The Argonne Forest Preserve outside Chicago is slated for the construction of a pilot plant for plutonium production. August 1942The Manhattan Engineer District is established with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers to oversee the bomb development project. September 1942On September 17, Col. Leslie Groves of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is placed in charge of the Manhattan Project; Marshall remains the district engineer. On the 23rd, following Groves' promotion to Brigadier General, the posting is made official. Shortly thereafter Groves secures a site at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near Knoxville, as the site for bomb material production and places DuPont in charge of construction of a plutonium separation facility ther ein view of doubts about the capabilities of Stone and Webster. DuPont agrees on October 3. It is also decided that the pilot plutonium production plant will be located at Oak Ridge rather than Argonne, which instead will house the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory's experimental reactor. November 1942Groves and Oppenheimer select a boys' school on a mesa near Los Alamos, New Mexico as the site for a new bomb development laboratory. December 1942On December 2, the experimental pile at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory produces a self-sustaining chain reaction. January 1943Hanford, on the Columbia River near Richmond, Washington, is chose as the site of the Manhattan Project's full-scale plutonium production facility. Resources: See the U. S. Department of Energy page on Hanford history. For much further detail, see John M. Findlay and Bruce Hevly, Atomic Frontier Days: Hanford and the American West (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011). February 1943The experimental pile at the University of Chicago, called CP-1, is shut down and removed to the facility at the Argonne Forest Preserve outside Chicago. The reconstructed and expanded experimental pile, CP-2, goes into operation there in March. On February 25, NDRC Chairman James Conant and Vice Chairman Richard Tolman are officially appointed scientific advisers to Groves, though they had consulted with him since the previous year. They, rather than the S-1 Executive Committee, become Groves' primary points of contact with the OSRD as the OSRD transfers research and development on all basic production processes over to the army. March 1943J. Robert Oppenheimer and support staff arrive in New Mexico, working out of Santa Fe as construction of the Los Alamos site continues. Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, 1942The Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory was officially established in January 1942 by Section S-1 Program Chief Arthur Compton, and was built up over the spring and summer. Laboratory administration was initially loose, but was steadily tightened over the course of the year, with some changes in titles and responsibilities. The below-listed names are mainly laboratory leadership, but some support staff, marked with a *, are also mentioned because they are in PHN. LeadershipProject Leader: Arthur Compton Administrative Assistant to the Project Leader: Norman Hilberry Administrative Office: Richard Doan (initally Laboratory Director) Fast-Neutron Research Coordinator: Gregory Breit (also Information Chief; resigns May 18) Physics GroupLeader: Enrico Fermi (initially Laboratory Research Coordinator) Herbert Anderson *Harold Agnew (a research assistant under Anderson) Walter Zinn Leo Szilard (initally uranium supply coordinator) John Manley (experimental assistant to J. R. Oppenheimer) George Monk Arthur Snell Joyce C. Stearns Martin Whitaker Volney Wilson Frank Foote (MIT) John Marshall (MIT) Theoretical GoupLeader: Eugene Wigner (Initially Laboratory Theoretical Chief) John Wheeler (also Library Leader) Robert Christy Francis Friedman Emil Konopinski Nicholas Metropolis Robert Mulliken Forest Murray Leo Ohlinger Gilbert Plass Edward Teller Alvin Weinberg Gale Young Hans Bethe (Boston) J. Robert Oppenheimer (Berkeley) (Fast-Neutron Project Leader from June) Robert Serber (Berkeley) Chemical GroupLeader: Samuel Allison (initally Laboratory Experimental Chief) George Boyd Milton Burton Charles Coryell Glenn Seaborg *Isadore Perlman (a research assistant under Seaborg) Frank Spedding Health Group LeaderR. S. Stone Property LeaderA. M. MacMahon Procurement LeaderC. A. Trejillus Chief EngineerT. V. Moore Chicago Metallurgical Project, 1943-1946In 1943, following the successful completion of an experimental reactor pile, laboratory staff and organization changed markedly as staff moved to the experimental reactor at the nearby Argonne Forest Preserve, to the pilot plutonium production plant and separation facility at Clinton Engineer Works near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to the Hanford full-scale plutonium production and separation facility in Washington State, and to the new bomb design laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico. The below-listed personnel do not comprise a full outline of the organization of the Chicago-area work in this period. However, all personnel who appear in PHN are included here. After the war, the Argonne laboratory was retained by the new Atomic Energy Commission, and eventually became the Argonne National Laboratory. Project Director:Arthur Compton Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory Directors:Samuel Allison (June 1943–November 1944) Joyce Stearns (November 1944–July 1945) Farrington Daniels (July 1945–May 1946) Argonne Laboratory Directors:Enrico Fermi (1943–1944) Walter Zinn (1944–1946) Other Personnel in PHN:James Franck (1942–1945) Director, Chemistry Division (1942–1943) Associate Project Director (1943–1944) Consultant (1944–1945) Norman Hilberry (1942–1946) Assistant Project Director (1943–1946) Acting Director, Physics Division (1944) Glenn Seaborg (1942-1946) Chief, Plutonium Chemistry Section (1943-1946) Henry Smyth (1943-1945) Associate Laboratory Director (1943-1944) Consultant (1944-1945) Arthur Dempster (1943-1946) Director, Physics and Metallurgy Division (1945-1946) Farrington Daniels (1944-1946) Assistant Director, Chemistry Division (1944-1945) Laboratory Director (1945-1946) Herbert Anderson (1942-1944) Eugene Wigner (1942-1945) Alvin Weinberg (1942-1945) Leo Szilard (1942-1946) Julian Schwinger (1943-1943) Luis Alvarez (1943-1944) Philip Morrison (1943-1944) Marvin Goldberger (Army SED, 1943-1945) Anthony Turkevich (1943-1945) John Simpson, Jr. (1943-1946) Leonard Rieser (1944-1944) Project Y: Los Alamos LaboratoryResearch and development surrounding the design of the atomic bomb took place at a laboratory atop a mesa near Los Alamos, New Mexico. After the war the laboratory was retained by the new Atomic Energy Commission primarily as a laboratory for the development of nuclear weaponry. It was renamed the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, before being renamed Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1981. The key sources on the wartime history are:
Los Alamos Organization, March 1943-August 1944Laboratory DirectorJ. Robert Oppenheimer Theoretical Division (formally organized in March 1944)Division Leader: Hans Bethe Group T-1 (Hydrodynamics of Implosion and Super*) Leader: Edward Teller (March-June 1944) Group T-1 (Hydrodynamics of Implosion) Leader: Rudolf Peierls (from June 1944) Group T-2 (Diffusion Theory, IBM Calculations, and Experiments) Leader: Robert Serber Group T-3 (Experiments, Efficiency Calculations, and Radiation Hydrodynamics) Leader: Victor Weisskopf Group T-4 (Diffusion Problems) Leader: Richard Feynman Group T-5 (Computations) Leader: Donald Flanders *In June 1944 Teller established theoretical work on the "super" fusion weapon as an independent group. Experimental Physics Division (organized March 1943)Division Leader: Robert Bacher Group P-1 (Cyclotron) Leader: Robert R. Wilson Group P-2 (Electrostatic Generator) Leader: John H. Williams Group P-3 (D-D Source) Leader: John Manley Group P-4 (Electronics) Leader: Darol Froman Group P-5 (Radioativity) Leader: Emilio Segrè Group P-6 (Detectors), established September 1943 Leader: Bruno Rossi Group P-7 (Water Boiler), established August 1943 Leader: Donald Kerst In July 1943 a group for improving counters was set up under Hans Staub; in August 1943 a group for improving electronic techniques was set up under Bruno Rossi; in September these were consolidated into Group P-6. Ordnance and Engineering Division (organized June 1943)Division Leader: Cpt. William Parsons, United States Navy Deputy Division Leaders (from early 1944): Edwin McMillan (Gun Program) George Kistiakowsky (Implosion Program) Group E-1 (Proving Ground) Leader: Edwin McMillan Group E-2 (Instrumentation) Leader: Kenneth Bainbridge (June 1943-early 1944) Leader: Lyman Parratt (1944) Group E-3 (Fuse Development) Leader: Robert Brode Group E-4 (Projectile, Target, and Source) Leader: Charles Critchfield Group E-5 (Implosion Experimentation) Leader: Seth Neddermeyer (June 1943-June 1944) Acting Leader: George Kistiakowsky (June-August 1944) Group E-6 (Engineering) Chief Engineer: George Chadwick (prospective, June-September 1943) Chief Engineer: J. L. Hittell (September-December 1943) Chief Engineer: P. Esterline (December 1943-April 1944) Chief Engineer: R. Cornog (April-May 1944) Chief Engineer: L. D. Bonbrake (May-August 1944) Group E-7 (Delivery), established fall 1943 Leader: Norman Ramsey Group E-8 (Interior Ballistics), established fall 1943 Leader Joseph Hirschfelder Group E-9 (High-Explosive Assemblies), established early 1944 Leader: Kenneth Bainbridge Group E-10 (Maintenance and Construction for Implosion Project & S-Site Operation), established June 1944 Leader: Maj. W. A. Stevens Group E-11 (RaLa Tests and Electric Detonates), established June 1944 Leader: Luis Alvarez Chemistry and Metallurgy Division (May 1943 to April 1944)Acting Division Leader: Joseph Kennedy Purification Group, Leader: Clifford Garner Radiochemistry Group, Leader: Richard Dodson Analysis Group, Leader: Samuel Weissman Metallurgy Group, Leader: Cyril Smith Chemistry and Metallurgy Division (April 1944 to August 1944)Division Leader: Joseph Kennedy Associate Division Leader (Metallurgy): Cyril Smith Group CM-1 (Health and Safety, Special Services) Leader: R. H. Dunlap Group CM-2 (Heat Treating and Metallography) Leader: F. Stroke Group CM-3 (Gas Tamper and Gas Liquefaction) Leader: Earl Long Group CM-4 (Radiochemistry) Leader: Richard Dodson Group CM-5 (Uranium and Plutonium Purification) Leader: Clifford Garner Group CM-6 (High-Vacuum Research) Leader: Samuel Weissman Group CM-7 (Miscellaneous Metallurgy) Leader: Claire Balke Group CM-8 (Uranium and Plutonium Metallurgy) Leader: Eric Jette Group CM-9 (Analysis) Leader H. A. Potratz Group CM-10 (Recovery) Leader: Robert Duffield Group CM-11 (Uranium Metallurgy), established June 1944 Leader: Alan Seybolt Los Alamos Organization, August 1944-August 1945In August 1944, the Los Alamos Laboratory was substantially reorganized on account of the infeasibility of a "gun" design for a plutonium bomb on account of the rate of spontaneous fission in that element. The new laboratory organization was geared toward achieving rapid progress with the implosion bomb design. Laboratory DirectorJ. Robert Oppenheimer Associate Laboratory DirectorEnrico Fermi Associate Laboratory DirectorCpt. William Parson, United States Navy Theoretical DivisionDivision Leader: Hans Bethe Group T-1 (Implosion Dynamics) Leader: Rudolf Peierls Group T-2 (Diffusion Theory) Leader: Robert Serber Group T-3 (Efficiency Theory) Leader: Victor Weisskopf Group T-4 (Diffusion Problems) Leader: Richard Feynman Group T-5 (Computations) Leader: Donald Flanders Group T-6 (IBM Computations), established September 1944 Leaders: Stanley Frankel and Eldred Nelson Group T-7 (Damage), established November 1944 Leader: Joseph Hirschfelder Group T-8 (Composite Weapon), established May 1945 Leader: George Placzek Research DivisionDivision Leader: Robert R. Wilson Group R-1 (Cyclotron) Leader: Robert R. Wilson Group R-2 (Electrostatic Generator) Leader: John H. Williams Group R-3 (D-D) Leader: John Manley Group R-4 (Radioactivity) Leader: Emilio Segrè F DivisionF Division considered issues outside the main project. Division Leader: Enrico Fermi Group F-1 (Super and General Theory) Leader: Edward Teller Group F-2 (Water Boiler) Leader: L. D. P. King Group F-3 (Super Experimentation) Leader: Egon Bretscher Group F-4 (Fission Studies) Leader: Herbert Anderson Ordnance DivsionDivision Leader: Group O-1 (Gun) Leader: Francis Birch Group O-2 (Delivery) Leader: Norman Ramsey Group O-3 (Fuse Development) Leader Robert Brode Group O-4 (Engineering) Leader: George Galloway Group O-5 (Calculations) Leader: Joseph Hirschfelder Group O-6 (Water Delivery and Exterior Ballistics) Leader: Maurice Shapiro Group O-7 (Procurement) Leader: Lt. Col. R. W. Lockridge Weapon Physics DivisionDivision Leader: Robert Bacher Group G-1 (Critical Assemblies) Leader: Otto Frisch Group G-2 (The X-Ray Method) Leader: Lyman Parratt Group G-3 (The Magnetic Method) Leader: Edwin McMillan Group G-4 (Electronics) Leader: William Higinbotham Group G-5 (The Betatron Method) Leader: Seth Neddermeyer Group G-6 (The RaLa Method) Leader: Bruno Rossi Group G-7 (Electric Detonators) Leader: Luis Alvarez Group G-8 (The Electric Method) Leader: Darol Froman Group G-10 (Initiator Group) Leader: Charles Critchfield Group G-11 (Optics) Leader: Julian Mack Explosives DivisionDivision Leader: George Kistiakowsky Group X-1 (Implosion Research) Leader: Commander Norris Bradbury Group X-1A (Photography with Flash X-Rays), dissolved May 1945 Leader: Kenneth Greisen Group X-1B (Terminal Observations) Leader: Henry Linschitz Group X-1C (Flash Photography) Leader: Walter Koski Group X-1D (Rotating Prism Camera) Leader: Joseph Hoffman Group X-1E (Charge Inspection) Leader: Gerold Tenney Group X-2 (Development, Engineering, and Tests), dissolved March 1945 Leader: Kenneth Bainbridge Group X-2A (Engineering), renamed X-2 March 1945 Leader: Robert Henderson Group X-2B (High Explosives), dissolved March 1945 Leader: Lt. W. F. Schaffer Group X-2C (Test Measurements), dissolved March 1945 Leader: Lewis Fussell Jr. Group X-3 (Explosives Development and Production) Leader: Cpt. Jerome Ackerman Group X-3A (Experimental Section) Leader: Lt. J. D. Hopper Group X-3B (Special Research Problems), established November 1944 Leader: David Gurinsky Group X-4 (Model Design, Engineering Service, and Consulting), established October 1944 Leader: Earl Long Group X-5 (Detonating Circuit), established March 1945 Leader: Lewis Fussell Jr. Group X-6 (Assembly and Assembly Tests), established March 1945 Leader: Commander Norris Bradbury Group X-7 (Detonator Developments), established May 1945 Leader: Kenneth Greisen Chemistry and Metallurgy DivisionDivision Leader: Joseph Kennedy Associate Division Leader (Metallurgy): Cyril Smith Group CM-1 (Service Group) Leader: R. H. Dunlap Group CM-2 (Heat Treatment and Metallography) Leader: F. Stroke Group CM-4 (Radiochemistry) Leader: Lindsay Helmholtz Group CM-5 (Plutonium Purification) Leader: Clifford Garner Group CM-6 (High-Vacuum Research) Leader: Samuel Weissman Group CM-7 (Miscellaneous Metallurgy) Leader: Alan Seybolt Group CM-8 (Plutonium Metallurgy) Leader: Eric Jette Group CM-9 (Analysis) Leader: H. A. Potratz Group CM-11 (Uranium Metallurgy) Leader: S. Marshall Group CM-12 (Health) Leader: W. H. Hinch Group CM-13 (DP Site) Leader: Joseph Burke Group CM-14 (RaLa Chemistry) Leader: Gerhardt Friedlander Group CM-15 (Polonium) Leader: Iral Johns Group CM-16 (Uranium Chemistry) Leader: Edward Richers Project Trinity, established March 1945Project Trinity prepared the test of the plutonium bomb design. Head: Kenneth Bainbridge Consultant (Structures): Roy Carlson Consultant (Meteorology): P. E. Church Consultant (Physics): Enrico Fermi Consultant (Damage): Jospeh Hirschfelder Consultant (Safety): S. Kershaw Consultant (Earth Shock): L. Don Leet Consultant (Blast and Shock): William Penney Consultant (Physics): Victor Weisskopf Consultant: Philip Moon Assembly: Commander Norris Bradbury and George Kistiakowsky Group TR-1 (Services) Leader: John H. Williams Group TR-2 (Blast and Shock) Leader: John Manley Group TR-3 (Measurements), renamed Physics Leader: Robert R. Wilson Group TR-4 (Meteorology) Leader: Jack Hubbard Group TR-5 (Spectrographic and Photographic Measurements Leader: Julian Mack Group TR-6 (Airborne Measurements), renamed Air Blast Leader: Bernard Waldman Group TR-7 (Medical) Leader: Dr. Louis Hempelmann Project Alberta, established March 1945Project Alberta prepared for combate use of atomic weapons. Key personnel on Tinian Island Officer-in-Charge: Cpt. William Parson, United States Navy Scientific and Technical Deputy: Norman Ramsey Operations Officer and Military Alternate: Commander Frederick Ashworth Fat Man Assembly Team Leader: Roger Warner Little Boy Assembly Team Leader: Francis Birch Fusing Team Leader: Edward Doll Electrical Detonator Team Leader: Lt. Commander E. Stevenson Pit Team Leaders: Philip Morrison and Charles Baker Observation Team Leaders: Luis Alvarez and Bernard Waldman Aircraft Ordnance Team Leader: Sheldon Dike Special Consultants: Robert Serber William Penney Cpt. James Nolan Other Los Alamos Staff in PHN, 1943-1946Felix Bloch (1943) Boyce McDaniel (1943-1945) Wolfgang Panofsky (consultant, 1943-1945) Harold Agnew (1943-1946) Henry Barschall (1943-1946) Owen Chamberlain (1943-1946) Robert Christy (1943-1946) Edward Creutz (1943-1946) Robert Duffield (1943-1946) Kenneth Case (1944-1945) Samuel Allison (1944-1946) Herbert Anderson (1944-1946) Benjamin Bederson (Army SED, 1944-1946) Martin Deutsch (1944-1946) Val Fitch (Army SED, 1944-1946) Roy Glauber (1944-1946) Robert Marshak (1944-1946) Maria Goeppert Mayer (1945) Jerrold Zacharias (1945) Dale Corson (1945-1946) Leonard Rieser (1945-1946) Leonard Schiff (1945-1946) Anthony Turkevich (1945-1946) Jerome Wiesner (1945-1946) |