Lesser Known Atomic Scientists Dr N K Srinivasan Introduction The development of atomic energy ,both for peaceful and for military purposes, marks a high point of scientific achievement in the 20th century. Every school boy has heard about the making of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos,New Mexico and the dropping of two atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in the year 1945. Less well known is the story of constructing the nuclear reactor with crude equipment at the University of Chicago by Enrico Fermi and his team, thus proving the nuclear chain reaction to generate lot of energy by nuclear fission.This happened in 1942.
A brief book on the life and works of 14 atomic scientists, including some of the great minds about whom little is known in general scintific literature and some interesting women scientists whose life woulf inspire any reader---lives of Lise Meitner, Henrietta Blau among others. Not much science is discussed, so that lay persons can read this article.At the same time, the conditions in those turbulent years 1905 to 1945, culminating in the explosion of atomic bomb is briefly described.The conditions of women scientists at that period is carefully discussed.
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Lesser Known Atomic Scientists
Dr N K Srinivasan
Introduction
The development of atomic energy ,both for peaceful and for
military purposes, marks a high point of scientific
achievement in the 20th century. Every school boy has heard
about the making of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos,New Mexico
and the dropping of two atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
in Japan in the year 1945. Less well known is the story of
constructing the nuclear reactor with crude equipment at the
University of Chicago by Enrico Fermi and his team, thus
proving the nuclear chain reaction to generate lot of energy
by nuclear fission.This happened in 1942.
The story of atom bomb , the involvement of the US army and
other details have been well chronicled.
Almost every educated person has heard of the famous
mathematical formula:
E = m c2
the Einstein's equation, linking mass and the energy released when mass m
is converted to energy.
Several names of scientists pop into our mind when we talk of atomic
energy and atom bomb and later developments: Albert Einstein, Neils
Bohr,Max Planck, Marie Curie, Enrico Fermi,Paul Dirac, John Oppenheimer,
Edward Teller,Otto Hahn among others.
We also hear the names of early pioneers who unraveled the stucture of
atoms and discovered several "Sub-atomic' particles, thereby laying the
foundation of atomic physics: J J Thompson [discovery of electron],W
Roentgen [ discovery of x rays], Ernest Rutherford [ structure of
nucleus], Chadwick [discovery of neutrons], Marie Curie [discovery of
Radium],Becquerel [radioactivity], Neils Bohr[structure of hydrogen atom],
Erwin Schrodinger[ wave mechanics], Werner Heisenberg [ matrix mechancis
and the uncertainty principle] and so on.
Some were awarded Nobel prizes, either for physics or chemistry, and thus
became instantly famous in the eyes of the public.[Rutherford was amused
when he got Nobel prize for chemistry and not for physics. Till recently
the sharp division among physicists and chemists as professional groups
remained.] There were and are anomalies in the award of Nobel prizes that
one would not take this aspect of award of Nobel prize to any
one seriously. For instance, Albert Einstein was awarded Nobel prize for
his formulation of photo-electric effect using quantum theory and not for
his theory of Relativity ! Some died before they could be given,for
instance Moseley.
What is interesting , many did not receive Nobel prizes at all, even
though their work was seminal or pivotal in the development of atomic
physics. Their works were either ignored or side-lined in the public
domain ,though their works are carefully studied by students of atomic
physics and became important foundation pillars of atomic and nuclear
physics. [In this article, I use the term atomic physics to include
nuclear physics too.]
This article is an attempt to bring out the great contributions of the
lesser known scientists of this era-- along with some of the anecdotes and
ironies one find in their lives.In this effort, a number of biographies of
individual scientists as well as some autobiographies have been
extensively consulted. I must add that this is only a small sample of
much that is available or known about these scientists and several others
not mentioned here.
In writing this article, I am inspired by some life stories which could be
inspiring to others as well---to the younger generation of science
students and general public.It is indeed my personal opinions and
proclivities that surface here...no rational argument or logical analysis
can be attributed to this selection of scientists.
The story of atomic physics and the growth of this field are colored by
two factors: 1 The contribution of Jewish scientists who faced many
persecutions or were victims of prejudices in Europe and to a lesser
extent in the United States and their migration to the USA and
2 the circumstances surrounding World War I and WW 2.
[ How many young promising scientists went to the battles of these wars
and died there? --This could be a separate study in itself. A prominent
case is that of Moseley [who studied characteristic X ray spectra and
developed periodic table of elements based on atomic number] who was
killed in Gallipoli during world war 1.]
I may also add that while many well-known women scientists contributed so
much, their works have not been high-lighted or described adequately for
young readers, with the exception of Marie Curie.Some women scie,ntists
are included in this article---- Lise Meitner, Madame Wu , Marietta Blau,
Marguerita catherine Perey and Maria Goeppert-Mayer.
Some of the scientists who were not living in Europe or USA but doing
great research in physics had only marginal expression in mainstream
physics. A notable exception was Satyendranath Bose . S N Bose had
corresponded with Albert Einstein and developed independently the
statistical distribution that governs the behavior of certain particles
[photon,for instance]; Einstein approved his formulation,edited his paper
and after translation from English to German, communicated to a German
journal. This distribution is called 'Bose-Einstein distribution'' and
those particles following this distribution are called 'Bosons'. Later
Einstein developed the concept of Bose-Einstein condensation which was
proved experimentally only in 1995. Many have heard of 'Bosons' but not
about S N Bose from University of Calcutta in India. He is included in
this article.
There is also a story of a physicist who disappeared suddenly in Italy.
I include brief life sketches of the following scientists:
1 Leo Szilard
2 Madame Wu
3 John von Neumann
4 George Gamow
5 John R Dunning
6 Maria Goeppert Mayer
7 Frederick Reines
8 Ettore Majorana
9 Llewellyn Thomas
1o Marietta Blau
11 Arnold Sommerfeld
12 Marguerite Catherine Perey
13 Lise Meitner
14 Satyendranath Bose
Leo Szilard
A Hungarian by birth, he was a genius who invented several
things.After he heard about the nuclear fission [discovered by
Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann] Szilard immediately
thought of the possibility of chain reaction to produce nuclear
energy. He designed an atomic reactor in a London hotel room. He
even patented the design. Later he would also patent the design
of a cyclotron--a particle accelerator.
He worked with Max von Laue on x-ray difraction experiments in
Berlin and later with Albert Einstein on thermodynamics and
designed a refrigerator which went into commercial production, to
be replaced by Freon system later.[1922-1930]
Later Szilard ,fleeing from Germany in 1933, worked in Oxford for
some years. Later he moved to the USA and was working with
Enrico Fermi at Columbia University in 1938. He performed simple
experiments at Columbia to prove the multiplication of neutrons
with nuclear fission using Uranium and graphite as moderator to
slow down the neutrons, along with John Dunning.
Leo Szilard , more than any other person at that time, realized
the full import of nuclear chain reaction; he wrote that night
after the successful experiment of chain reaction at the
laboratory: "That night there was very little doubt in my mind
that the world was headed for grief." [ Walter Zinn worked with
Szilard at Columbia University and later at Chicago.]
[The Germans were also close on the heels of this work, trying to
produce nuclear chain reaction.They used a graphite derived from
silicon carbide which contained boron as an impurity. Boron is a
good absorber of neutrons and hence they could not achieve chain
reaction.What a blessing! Szilard gathered graphite without the
boron impurity and so was successful in achieving chain reaction.
Later he would persuade Einstein at Princeton to sign the famous
letter to the president F D Roosevelt which Szilard drafted--- on
the necessity of developing an atomic weapon.The Manhattan
project is a brainchild of Leo Szilard.
Then he moved to University of Chicago along with Enrico Fermi to
build the "Atomic Pile" and the nuclear reactor went critical on
Dec 2nd , 1942 [Chicago Pile 1].
Szilard moved to Los Alamos laboratory to join hands with Fermi
and Oppenheimer to work on the atomic bomb. He was critical of
war efforts and was disillusioned with greater control of the
project by military generals.He had many arguments with Gen
Leslie Groves, the military director of the project while J
Oppenheimer was the scientific director. He was against the use
of the atom bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and much of what
happened during the cold war. Like many atomic scientists, he was
a pacifist and truly beleived that the atom bomb should not be
used in any war.
After the war, he switched from atomic physics to molecular
biology and colloborated with Aaron Novick, the founder of the
Institute of Molecular Biology at Eugene, Oregon.The European
Microbiology Lab was established at his suggestion. Its library
is named after Szilard.
He was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1960. For his own
treatment, he devised an equipment for Cobalt 60 radio-isotope
treatment for cancer.
During the last few years, he worked at the Salk Institute in
San Diego in the company of his old friend Jacob Bronowski. He
died at the age of 66.
A crater in the Moon is named after Leo Szilard.
Madame Wu
Chien Shing Wu, widely known as Madame Wu , is a woman physicist
born in Jiangsu province in China. She studied in Nanjing
University and later moved to Taiwan.Like many women scientists
of her era, she sought a school teaching career, before taking up
research.From 1930 to 1934, she studied at the physics department
of National Central University in Taiwan, and became a researcher
at the Institute of Physics there.
She is best known for her work on proving experimentally the
violation of parity principle , proposed by T D Lee and C Y Yang
at Columbia University. It is interesting that all the three
scientists were of Chinese origin. Yang and Lee got the
Noble prize for their theoretical work, but Madame Wu did not get
it. [Incidentally both Yang and Lee studied at the University of
Chicago and an anecdote has that S Chandrasekhar [the Indian
astrophysicist who also received the Nobel prize later] would
drive several miles to teach Yang and Lee and later told that his
entire class of two students got the Nobel prize.]
She came to University of California at Berkeley with a
fellowship and became a student of E.O.Lawrence of cyclotron fame
and received her Ph D in 1940. She later went to Princeton and
from there to Columbia University [New York city] where she
remained from 1944 to 1980--her entire career.
It is interesting to note that as an experimenter she was highly
accomplished--a fact not very well known.She was part of
Manhattan Project which started at Columbia lab. Her major role
as an experimenter was to develop the diffusion process for
enriching uranium---that is ,separating U 235 from U 238 using
gaseous diffusion of uranium hexafluoride---a process at once
diifcult and risky.
She had several nick-names such as " First Lady of
Physics'and "The Chinese Madame Curie".An unassuming lady, she
received the first Wolf prize for physics from Israel. She died
in 1997.
John von Neumann
John von Neumann belongs to the
rare category of versatile genius
and child prodigies. [Many
child prodigies do not flower into
geniuses in later life.]He was a polymath, with wide interests
and mastery of different fields.
He is best known for his mathematical 'game theory' and work
on opearations research;indeed he was one of the greatest
mathematicians of 20th century.He was not only a pure
mathematician, but applied mathematician as well---he was a great
mathematical physicist and also a mathematical
economist ,contributing to econometrics. His contribution to
early computer science is well-known. The computer architecture
with sequential processing is still called ' Neumann
architecture'. He even wrote the instruction set for the first
large computer ENIAC .
His memory was phenomenal and could recite literary pieces of
several pages; he did much mental calculations at fantastic
speed, including summing up an infinite series.
He is also well known for his work on atom bomb at Los Alamos
laboratory , along with Fermi, Oppenheimer,and later with Edward
Teller on thermonuclear or hydrogen bombs with nuclear fusion. He
had no qualms about working on these military projects---he was
against fascism and communism. He was not a pacifist . He held
the view that nuclear weapons could be a deterrent too.
John von Neumann was born in Budapest in 1903 to wealthy Jewish
parents. His father was a banker and a lawyer. Affectionately
called 'Johnny" of "Jancsi", he was far ahead of his school
curriculum; so his father appointed private tutors for him. At
the age of 8, he was familiar with Newton's calculus.When he was
15, he had mastered calculus and other math subjects that his
tutor Gabor Szego, on meeting him first was moved to tears. By
the age of 19, he wrote his first mathematical paper. A legend
has it that he received his undergraduate degree and Ph D at the
same year--when he was 22 years old.
Then he moved to ETH in Switzerland, where he learned math under
Georg Polya. Under his father's pressure, he also got a degree in
chemical engineering from ETH--- a subject that could be
more useful for later life.!
He became a privat-dozent at the young age of 23 in Berlin.By
1929, he had published 32 mathematical papers, at the rate of one
paper every month.
In 1930, he was invited to join the Institute for Advanced
Studies in Princeton, New Jersey; the other persons invited along
with him were Albert Einstein and Kurt Godel. Johnny remained
with the Insitute till his death in 1957.He became a US citizen
in 1938.
His early work was to put quantum mechanics on a firm
mathematical basis ,using operator formalism and Hilbert
space. He applied group theory and other mathematical tools for
economics, which were later developed by many Nobel Laureates,
such as Kenneth Arrow and John Nash.He also developed much of
operations research [OR] and linear programming methods and
duality theorem, colloborated with George Dantzig at Stanford.His
work on linear programming was immediately applied for many
commercial problems.
His lasting work was in Los Alamos laboratory---with early work
on 'explosive lenses' and shaped charges for efficient thermo-
nuclear (hydrogen) bombs to compress plutonium core for Nagasaki
bomb.He fully supported such military efforts as he was much
against communism and also the fascist regimes in Germany and in
Italy.
After the war in 1945, he continued as a consultant to US
government on designing bombs and ICBMs. He was the head of a
committee for ICBMs ,called Neumann Commitee. He coined the
term " MAD" --Mutually Assured Destruction. Along with Stanislaw
Ulam, a close friend and a Polish mathematician, he developed
simulation methods using random numbers,called Monte-Carlo
method. For all his passionate work for the military, he inspired
the character of Dr Strangelove.He filed a secret patent for a
hydrogen bomb design along with Klaus Fuchs in 1946.[Klaus Fuchs
later defected to Soviet Union and became the first nuclear spy.]
He continued to be a consultant for various corporations such as
RAND and IBM,staying at Princeton.
In personal life, he was one with lot of appetite for jokes.He
used to share jokes with his friend Stanislaw Ulam till the
end.He could work in a noisy place without getting
disturbed,because of his power of intense concentration. He was
married and had a daughter.
In 1955, he was diagnosed with cancer---may be due to his
exposure to nuclear radiations during the underwater
nuclear tests at Bikini islands.He stayed at Walter Reed Hospital
in Washington D.C. for nearly 18 months and then died .
A crater in the Moon is named after 'Johnny" von Neumann.
George Gamow
George Gamow is better known for his popular science books such
as "Mr Tompkin in wonderland" and "One,two, three---infinity"
which educated a generation of young persons including me on
modern physics. Gamow, a Russian Jew who emigrated to USA under
trying circumstances, was a scientist who made great
contributions to the theoretical aspects of Quantum mechanics and
astrophysics.
His theory of alpha decay from radio-active substances
developed "Quantum tunneling process" in which a few particles
can escape from the potential well or barrier of a nucleus---a
result of probabilistic nature of wave function---a particle can
exist outside its confines though only a few can do so. Gamow
also developed, when he was in Neils Bohr institute, a
simple "liquid drop model" for nuclear fission or fusion of two
atoms, taking into account conversion of mass into energy, like
two drops may coalesce to reduce its surface tension.This model,
later developed by Neils Bohr and John Wheeler became a working
model for nuclear physicists for many years.
In later years, he devoted his time to problems of astro-
physics. He was an early advocate of big-bang theory.
Gamow was born in Odessa in Ukraine to Jewish parents. He
studied at University of Leningrad. One of his friends was Lev
Landau.
He came to Gottingen, the Mecca of atomic physicists at that
time-- when Max Born was training many young physicists
there.Later he spent three years [1928-1931] with Neils Bohr at
Copenhagen. He spent a few years as Rockefeller Fellow at
Cambridge university,in Ernest Rutherford laboratory.
In 1928, he solved the alpha decay problem using the tunneling
effect. Simulataneously R W Gurney and E U Condon also came with
the the same solution, but their calculations were less rigorous.
Gamow was able to calculate the half life of isotopes with alpha
decay and introduced a " Gamow factor' into this process.[Read
his popular book with plenty of anecdotes: " Thirty years that
shook physics"--Dover pub].
He returned to Russia---may be a wrong move for him!---and
built a cyclotron at the Radium Institute which was completed
only in 1937.In 1931, he had bad encounter with the communist
regime. He was denied the permission to attend a scientific
conference in Italy. Gamow decided to escape from Russia with his
wife 'Rho" . He made two attempts to escape. In one attempt , he
stayed in a sea-side resort near the black sea; he planned to
rent out a boat and then escape at night with his wife by rowing
to a place in Turkey..During this journey,however, there was
heavy storms in the sea and Gamow returned to the resort, without
authorities getting any information on his attempt. The second
attempt was to reach Norway from Murmansk.Again bad weather
prevented this escaapade and so Gamow failed in both the attempts
to escape from Russia.
Things changed for the better in 1933. He got the permission to
attend the Solvay Conference [ a prestigeous conference in which
almost all top atomic scientists participated] in Brussels. He
left with his wife who posed as his secretary-- with official
passports. With the generous spirit of Marie Curie and Neils
Bohr, the couple could stay outside Russia. Gamow went to the
Curie Insitute in Paris and later to University of London. He
moved to University of Michigan, Aan Arbor in USA later and
emigrated to USA.
His work now turned to nuclear explosions. He became a
professor at George Washington University at Washington D C . He
invited Edward Teller from Hungary to join him [1936]. The basic
work relating to thermo-nuclear [H-Bomb] devices were done at
that time. His theory of beta decay took shape and he wrote a
paper on 'Gamow-Teller selection rule".
During the war years, he did not work on Manhattan project when
Teller moved to Los Alamos. But Gamow stayed at George Washington
University in D C and consulted for U S Navy on sub-marine
related problems with other professors.
After the war , he turned his attention to problems of
astrophysics---things relating to star formations. A major paper
was produced in 1945 with Carl Weizsacker. With Raplh Alpher and
Hans Bethe [Cornell University], Gamow worked out the nuclear
reactions in stars and synthesis of chemical elements from
hydrogen in stars. Alpher-Bethe-Gamow theory was called "alpha-
beta-gamma " theory by him!.
Gamow predicted the background microwave radiation in the
Universe due to Big-bang explosion; [a prediction which was later
observed by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1978 for which they
received Nobel prize.]
In later years Gamow moved to University of Colorado, Boulder,
where he would do some work relating to molecular biology;he
worked on the synthesis of proteins from the molecular blocks in
DNA chains.
He was a gifted writer on popular science, as mentioned earlier,
comparable to the younger author Isaac Asimov.He also wrote an
autobiography--" My World Line--An informal autobiography" Viking
Press , 1970.
He died at the age of 64, in 1968.
[Note: The present author met him in 1960 when he gave a lecture
on the "Age of the Earth' with pronounced Russian accent. He was
already obese .He said later that his liver was sending him a
bill.]
John R Dunning
John Dunning is a well-known experimenter who proved the release
of neutrons during the nuclear fission and also measured the
enormous amount of energy theoretically postulated by Lise
Meitner and Otto Frisch in Europe. He led a team which formed the
group to develop the conditions for the nuclear reactions in
Manhattan project initiated by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard that
started in Columbia University, New York. The work was done in
great secrecy in the basement of Pupin building ,the physics
department there.
The frenzy of activity started after Neils Bohr who was
visiting Princeton for a conference received a telegram from Otto
Frisch from Stockholm [Jan 1939]. Frisch was the nephew of Lise
Meitner. Otto Frisch and Lise Meitner both met during the
Christmas vacation [Dec 1938] and discussed the discovery of
nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Strassmann, both earlier
colleagues of Lise Meitner in Berlin. This was indeed a secret
information, conveyed to Lise Meitner before the publication by
Otto Hahn. Meitner immediately worked out the calculations for
the process of a Uranium atom splitting into two halves [one half
being Barium atom found in the experiment] and realised, using
mass defect, that enormous energy [about 200 Mev per fission]
would be released. The exciting possibility of releasing this
energy occupied the heated discussion between Meitner and Frisch
during the breakfast stroll in snow-covered garden in Meitner's
home. Frisch, being a fellow of the Bohr Institute, wanted to
communicate this to Neils Bohr in Princeton.
Neils Bohr, excited by the news from Otto Frisch, immediately
walked into the conference room and spilled the beans ----
announced this discovery that uranium atom could be split, with
formation of barium atom to the assembly of great physicists.
[There is another version of this story; Lise Meitner told Neils
Bohr about the results of Otto Hahn on uranium fission and her
calculations before Neils Bohr left Stockholm by boat to New
York. During the travel in the ship, Bohr discussed this problem
with Leon Rosenfeld and forgot to mention that the information
should be kept secret. It was Rosenfled who told other
physicists. Soon after that, Bohr realised the mistake and tried
to preserve the priority of Otto Hahn and Strassmann and Lise
Meitner, the Berlin team; the paper,however, was was already
published by these authors in Germany, a fact not known to Neils
Bohr at that time.]
This triggered a frenzy of activity among the physicists in the
US, in various universities... Whoever had a source of neutron
went ahead to try it out. John Dunning who received the news at
New York , along with Enrico Fermi, was the first one to try out
and develop a series of experiments leading to the demonstration
of nuclear chain reaction.
John Dunning grew up in Nebraska and was an experimenter from his
early days at school;he built a radio transmitter as a school
boy. Later, along with his father, built several radio stations
and sold them later.
He came to Columbia University as a student in physics and had
enormous encouragement as an experimenter. He had built a neutron
source by the method used in Berlin by Lise Meitner and others--a
small quantity of radon gas enclosed in a tube with a piece of
beryllium.[Radon gas can be collected from the emanations from a
piece of radio-active radium.]
His first aim was to note the large release of energy and also
the production of 'more than one neutron per fission' so that a
chain reaction could be initiated for nuclear fission of uranium
atoms. With his students [Harold Anderson, E T Booth,G N Glascoe
and FG Slack] he built an ionisation chamber to detect the large
energy release of energy from the fission of uranium atoms. He
would establish later that the fission comes from U 235 isotope
of uranium.
The energy release from the fission was indeed in the range
of 100 to 200 MeV, as predicted by Lise Meitner with Otto
Frisch. The classic paper by Dunning's team was published
in the year 1939: " The Fission of Uranium" by H L Anderson,
E T Booth, J R Dunning, E Fermi, G N Glascoe and F G Slack,
Phys Rev March 1, 1939.
This work not only triggered the Manhattan project but
would lead to the construction of first atomic reactor with
chain reaction {Chicago-Pile 1] at University of Chicago by
Fermi and later to the making of atom bomb at Los Alamos
laboratory, in New Mexico.
John Dunning requested Prof Arnold Nier, a chemist who was
expert in mass spectrograph to isolate U-235 isotope from
the abundant U-238 in a sample of Uranium ---at University
of Minnesota---in 1940.. [A piece of uranium typically
consists of 0.7% U 235 isotope and the rest U 238
isotope.] A small tiny bit of U 235 was received by Dunning
for establishing the fission of U 235 atoms by slow
neutrons.The separation of U 235 from normal Uranium or
enrichment of uranium in sufficient quantities of a few
kilograms would be a major undertaking for the bomb makers.
John Dunning immediately set about the separation process
for U -235. He chose the gas diffusion method ,using uranium
hexa-fluoride---a tough material to handle. There were lot
of chemical problems to solve...Prof Dunning had
colloboration with the chemist Prof Harold Urey , also at
Columbia,to conduct this project.[H C Urey received Nobel
prize for his early work on Deuterium and heavy water.]
A large scale plant to make U-235 by diffusion was set up
with Dunning's consultations at Oak Ridge Laboratory at
Tennessee.. [This process would also consume lot of electric
power.]
Meanwhile Fermi, Harold Anderson and his team moved to
Chicago to build the pile using natural Uranium, as part of
the Manhattan project. They would discover that Plutonium
was produced in nuclear reactors which could be separated
from uranium rods; plutonium also is a fissile material and
could be used for building an atom bomb. A plutonium plant
was set up at Hanford,Washington state and some of Fermi's
assistants moved there for the Hanford plant.
Another group of scientists gathered at Los Alamos
laboratory, New Mexico to design and to fabricate the bomb.
John Oppenheimer was the scientific director and Gen Leslie
Groves was the military director at Los Alamos. Dunning
became a consultant to the Los Alamos team but stayed at
Columbia University.
Meanwhile John Dunning spearheaded two projects.He built a
highly successful cyclotron in his laboratory. This
cyclotron is a permanent exhibit now at Smithsonian museum
in Washington D C. The second project was the building of a
large synchro-cyclotron for nuclear experiments.[SAM
project]
Dunning received many awards and a also a substantial amount
in lieu of patent rights from U S|Atomic energy commission.
This amount he donated to Columbia University. He became a
full professor in 1946 and later Dean of Engineering and
Apllied Sciences school there.
John Dunning was an inspired experimenter and trained many
young scientists in experimental nuclear physics. He was at
the critical time of enormously significant nuclear work at
the right place with E Fermi. Gen Leslie Grove said later: "
I feel very strongly that Dr Dunning has not been
appreciated by his country for his work on the {Manhattan}
project." Be that as it may, he was admired and loved by his