Nuclear Generations - Duo Chi - Historical Figures

Nuclear Generations - Book I
Principal Historical Figures

Ernest O. Lawrence

E. O. Lawrence won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for the development of the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. It was an essential instrument for the study of sub-atomic particle physics. Will choose to attend Cal in large part due to Lawrence’s work, eventually becoming his assistant.

Lawrence was a key player in the development of the atomic bomb, using the prestige of his Nobel to influence politicians to support the effort and scientists to work on it.

Ernest O. Lawrence

J. Robert Oppenheimer

An enigmatic figure, “Oppie” became Will’s thesis advisor at Berkeley and later his close friend and confidante. Despite his left leanings, Oppie was never a communist. He was eventually selected by Groves to lead the scientific team at Los Alamos in developing the atomic bomb. He proved to be as good at leading scientists as he was brilliant at theoretical physics. He was greatly admired by almost everyone he worked with.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Enrico Fermi

Fermi won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1938 for his work in the mid 1930’s in Rome studying the creation of new isotopes via neutron bombardment.

Fermi enters the story at Columbia in New York early in 1941. He relocated from Italy to America in 1939 and was busy building a tower of graphite to measure its neutron cross-section in anticipation of the first nuclear reactor which he would build and achieve criticality in December of 1942.

Fermi relocated to Los Alamos at the height of the Manhattan Project and was a key player in the development of the first atomic bomb

Enrico Fermi

Otto Hahn

Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1944, even though that year he was being pursued by Allied forces in Germany. The announcement was made after the war in recognition for the role his rigorous chemical analyses played in the discovery of nuclear fission in late 1938. He shares credit along with his long-time collaborator Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch for this discovery.

In the story Otto is Greta’s father and plays an important role in alerting the US to the efforts of the Nazi’s to develop an atomic bomb. He did not want Hitler to obtain this weapon and used his position in Germany to thwart that effort.

Otto Hahn

General Leslie Groves

In this author’s view, General Leslie Groves was the most important single person in the Manhattan Project. His great courage to proceed with highly-risky technologies that cost enormous sums enabled the US to succeed in this effort.

In the story he recognizes Will’s talent for understanding a wide range of relevant technologies and selects him to be his principal interface with the scientific community.

General Leslie Groves

Robert Serber

A brilliant colleague of Oppenheimer and Lawrence at Berkeley, Serber wrote the Los Alamos Primer which was a series of five lectures he presented over a two week period to the newly-arriving scientists at Los Alamos at the start of their investigations leading to the development of the bomb.

In the story he becomes Will’s co-conspirator in an attempt to limit the future use of such weapons.

Robert Serber

Leona Woods Marshall

Leona Woods was a woman working in a man’s world at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory during the early 1940’s where she earned her doctorate while helping Fermi and others develop the first atomic reactors.

In the story Leona develops a crush on Will who resists her advances but develops a platonic friendship with her that carries throughout the story.

Leona Woods Marshall

Leo Szilard

Amazingly, Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of a nuclear chain reaction shortly after Chadwick’s discovery of the neutron in the mid 1930’s, going so far as to submit a patent for the idea which became a reality about 7 years later. He also played an important role in developing the first ‘pile’ with Fermi both at Columbia and later at Chicago and Los Alamos. Along with Edward Teller he drafted a letter for Einstein to send to President Roosevelt advocating the development of the atomic bomb before Germany.

In the story Leo advocates improved security during the development stages and, once it was certain that Germany was not going to develop such a weapon, worked to organize scientists to oppose its completion and use.

Leo Szilard

Historical Characters in the Story
	Last Name	First Name	Position	Notes
1	Abelson	Phil	Cal Post Doc	Almost found Fission
2	Adler	Edward	Columbia Univ.	GD Filter designer
3	Alvarez	Luis W.	Chicago Physicist	Implosion Designer
4	Anderson	Herbert	Aide to Fermi	Columbia
5	Anderson	Sir John	British Scientist	Member of Parliament
6	Bainbridge	Kenneth	Harvard Physics	Los Alamos Researcher
7	Bell	Thomas	S & W Proj. Mgr.	Chicago Met Lab Team
8	Bethe	Hans	German Physicist	Los Alamos Div Leader
9	Bethe	Rose	Hans Young Wife	Stuggart Native
10	Briggs	Lyman	Head of US Bureau of Mines	Chairman of FDR’s Uranium Committee
10	Breit	Gregory	Design Head MED	Oppie replaced him
11	Bundy	Harvey	Stimson Assistant	Atomic Matters
12	Bush	George Herbert Walker	41st US President	Concurred with raid on Rocky Flats
13	Bush	Vannevar	Carnegie Institute	MIT VP started NDRC
14	Bush	George W.	43rd US President	Didn’t deal w. Duo Chi
15	Byrnes	Jimmie	Truman Confidant	Interim Committee
16	Carpenter	Walt	DuPont President	Hanford Contractor
17	Chadwick	James	British Delegation	Quebec Conference
18	Church	Gil	DuPont Engineer	Hanford Site Selection
19	Churchill	Winston	UK Prime Minister	Quebec Conf. Principal
20	Compton	Karl	Pres. MIT	Brother of Arthur
21	Compton	Arthur	Physicist, Nobel L.	Head of MED Met Lab
22	Conant	James	Member NRDC	Pres. of Harvard b. 1893
23	Cunningham	Burris	Isolated Pu	Seaborg Associate
24	Doyle	Mark	S&W Eng.	Chicago Met Lab Team
25	Einstein	Albert	German Physicist	Theory of Relativity
26	Farrell	Colonel	Groves’ man	Witness to Trinity
27	Fermi	Enrico	Professor, Physicist	Columbia, Los Alamos
28	Fermi	Laura	Wife of Enrico	New Jersey, Los Alamos
29	Fields	Alonzo	FDR Waiter	Whitehouse
30	Fitzwater	Marlin	Press Secretary	Formerly of NBC News
31	Greenwalt	Crawford	DuPont Engineer	Key designer B Reactor
32	Griggs	Harriet	Lawrence secretary	Later Seaborg’s Wife
33	Groves	Leslie	West Point Grad Brigadier General	Head of the Manhattan Project
34	Hahn	Otto	German nuclear scientist	Professor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin
35	Hahn	Edith	Otto’s Wife	Nee Junghaus
36	Hall	A.E.S.	DuPont Engineer	Hanford Site Selection
37	Harrison	Kitty	Oppie’s wife	Nee Katherine Puening
39	Hitler	Adolf	German Chancellor	Spoke at Greta’s comm.
40	Holman	Richard	Physicist	Los Alamos Staff
41	Hoover	Herbert	US President	Guest of Colo. Gov.
42	Hoover	J. Edgar	FBI Director	Will’s Nemesis
43	Johnson	Edwin	Colo.Governor	1935 Commencement
44	Jones	Joscelyn	GP Thompson’s secretary, Widow of Peter lost in the London bombings.	Romantic Liaison with Will in UK. Daughter of Lord Gort, John Vereker
45	Kistiakowsky	George	Harvard Chemist	Los Alamos Explosives Expert
46	Lawrence	Ernest O	Cal Physicist Inventor of Cyclotron Nobelist	Wife: Mary Kimberly “Molly” Blumer, 6 children
47	Lindsay	Steve	S&W Eng.	Chicago Met Lab Team
48	Loomis	Alfred	Wealthy Financier	Funded Lawrence Travels
49	Mapp	Chuck	Duke Elect. Eng.	Y-12 Engineer, Spy story
50	Marshall	George C.	Sec. of Army	5-star Gen, Int. Committee
51	Mathias	Lt. Col.	Groves’ Asst.	Headed up Hanford
52	Matthews	Frank	Physics Prof	CSM
53	McGowan	Bob	FBI Agent	Head of RF Raid
54	McMillan	Ed	Lawrence Asst.	Will’s thesis committee
55	Morgan	Jesse	Dean of Students	CSM
56	Nichols	Lt. Col Ken	Groves first assistant	Groves man at Los Alamos
57	Norlin	George	Pres. Univ. Colo.	Commencement Speaker
58	Norris	Edward	Columbia Univ.	GD Filter designer
59	O’Leary	Mrs.	Groves’ Secretary	Washington D.C. office
60	Obama	Barack	US President Elect	Must deal w. Duo Chi
61	Oppenheimer	J. Robert	Dir. Los Alamos	Father of A-Bomb
62	Pegram	George	Dean of Columbia	Got Fermi to Columbia
63	Phillip	Michael	Oppie co-author	Will’s thesis committee
64	Planck	Max	President KWI	Commencement 1935
65	Reilly	William	EPA Administrator	“Bill”
66	Rodgers	Bill	Allis-Chalmers	Calutron Eng. at Y-12,
67	Roosevelt	Franklin	US President	Auth. Manhattan Project
68	Seaborg	Glenn	Cal Chemist	Discovered Plutonium
69	Segrè	Emilio	Italian Physicist	Cal, Los Alamos, Fermi Associate
70	Serber	Robert	Physicist, Duo Chi Enabler	Author Los Alamos Primer”
71	Serber	Charlotte	Robert’s Wife	LA Staff Librarian
72	Sessions	William	FBI Director	“William”
73	Sperrle	Hugo	Field Marschall	Luftwaffe, Blitz Planner
74	Stimson	Henry	Sec. of War	Interim Comm.
75	Stine	Chuck	DuPont Engineer	Hanford Engineer
76	Sununu	John	Chief of Staff	Bush 41
77	Szilard	Leo	From Columbia	Einstein Letter, more
78	Tatlock	Jean	Oppie’s Girlfriend	1936-1939
79	Teller	Edward	Berkeley Seminar	Einstein Letter, Super
80	Teller	Mici	Edward’s wife	Hungarian, Sociable
81	Thomson	GP	UK MAUD Chair	Helps Will with Pu
82	Thornton	Bob	Lawrence Assoc.	Will’s thesis committee
83	Traylor	Frank	Dir Dept. Hlth	Heart Surgeon, CDH.
84	Urey	Harold	Columbia Chemist	Nobel Laureate
85	Vanderwilt	John	President CSM	1935 Commencement
86	Watkins	James D.	DOE Secretary	Admiral in Nuclear Navy
87	Weinberg	Alvin	X-10 Nuclear Eng	Start-up and Ops role
88	Werner	Louis	Isolated Pu	Seaborg Associate
89	Westcott	Ed	OR Photographer	Tennessee native
90	Wheeler	John	Nuclear Engineer	Princeton, Hanford Adv.
91	Whiteman	Earl	DOE Manager	During Rocky Flats Raid
92	Wigner	Eugene	From Columbia	Chicago Met Lab Team
93	Williams	Don	S & W PM	Y-12 Plant Design
94	Wilson	Volney	Physicist	Chicago Met Lab Team
95	Woods	Leona	Chicago Physicist	Met Lab, OR, LA, Hnfrd

Historical Maps Referenced in the Story
A. Berkeley Campus, 1935-1940
B. London, 1941, 1935-1940
C. Quebec, 1943
D. Oak Ridge, 1944
E. Washington D.C., 1945

Historical Photos Referenced in the Story
A. X-10 Graphite Reactor
B. “B” Reactor at Hanford
C. Berkeley Campus
D. LeConte Hall, Berkeley Campus
E. Eckhart Hall, U. of Chicago

Nuclear Generations - Book I Principal Historical Figures

Ernest O. Lawrence

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Enrico Fermi

Otto Hahn

General Leslie Groves

Robert Serber

Leona Woods Marshall

Leo Szilard

Nuclear Generations - Book I
Principal Historical Figures