Atomic Legacies:

Commemorating 60 Years of Nuclear Science,

Engineering and Technology

Manhattan Project Lecture Series

American Museum of Science & Energy

Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Saturday, June 18, 2005 – 8:45AM to 5:15PM

9:05 AM – Dr. Ted Rockwell – “Our Legacy is More than a Bomb”

Manhattan Project Veteran – Oak Ridge – Y12 

• Dr. Theodore Rockwell - Civilian Physicist – Dr. Rockwell has been involved in nuclear technology for the past 60 years and was a member of an elite Process Improvement "Tiger Team" at the Y-12 Electromagnetic Separation Plant at Oak Ridge, TN.  After the war, he transferred to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and became head of the Radiation Shield Engineering Group.  In 1949 then-Captain Hyman Rickover hired him to help develop designs, procedures and facilities for the safe operation of nuclear-powered naval vessels and the world's first commercial central station nuclear power plant.  As the program's Technical Director, he went out on initial sea trials of each new ship.

9:50 AM – Dana Mitchell – “A Child at War-Time Los Alamos”

Manhattan Project Descendent – Los Alamos 

• Dana Mitchell – Dana is the son of Dr. Dana P. Mitchell, a professor at the SAM Lab at Columbia University and Asst. Director of the Los Alamos Laboratory under J. Robert Oppenheimer.  Dana will discuss growing up and attending school at Los Alamos during World War II.

10:25 AM – Joanne Gailar – “A Woman’s Role at Oak Ridge”

Manhattan Project Veteran – Oak Ridge – K25 

• Joanne Gailar - Imagine taking a job without being told what task you would perform or even what city you would work in. As World War Two raged in the early 1940s, twenty-year-old Joanne Gailar took just such a job in a city without a name. Not until the war’s end would Ms. Gailar discover that she had helped to create the world’s first atomic bomb. Ms. Gailar is the author of the book: “Oak Ridge and Me: From Youth to Maturity”.

11:00 AM – John R. Dunning, Jr. – “Uranium in my Family, Words my Father might have Spoken”

Manhattan Project Descendent – SAM Lab at Columbia Univ. 

• John R. Dunning, Jr. – John R. Dunning, Jr. is a professor of physics at Sonoma State University where he has taught since 1969.  Here he conducts both a senior level Microanalysis Laboratory and a Descriptive Physics Lecture with equal enthusiasm.  He keeps his analytic skills sharp using X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray, and a Germanium Gamma Ray Detector to characterize samples.  Prior to 1969 he was a lecturer at Harvard, where he had the pleasure of participating in experiments probing the electromagnetic structure of the proton and neutron. John is the son of Dr. John R. Dunning, director of the gaseous diffusion project at Columbia University.  The technology developed at Columbia was used in the construction of the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge.

11:30 AM – John Gillette – “The X-10 Factor”

Manhattan Project Veteran – Oak Ridge – X10 

• John Gillette – John was raised on a farm in Cortland, New York and attended St. Lawrence University where he got a degree in physics with special training in “modern physics,” which means “atomic” stuff.  He went to work for DuPont in 1939 and was working on military explosives in New Jersey, Illinois, and Alabama until he transferred to Oak Ridge in August 1943.  He worked at X-10 on the Graphite Reactor and was involved with the loading of the Reactor in November 1943 when it went critical.  After the War, he stayed with ORNL in the Reactor Division, head of the Isotopes Division, and later director of Security until his retirement in 1981.

1:00 PM – Dr. Donald Ames – “A Soldier’s Role at the Met Lab”

Manhattan Project Veteran – SED – Met Lab at U. of Chicago 

• Dr. Donald P. Ames - Dr. Ames was a member of the Special Engineering Detachment, Corps of Engineers, US. Army at the University of Chicago during the years 1944-1946. He was in the Chemistry Division, in New Chem under the direction of Dr. Glenn Seaborg. He received a BS in Chemistry from UW-Madison in December 1943.  While there, Dr. Ames participated in several important events:  He performed the first measurements of the visible spectra of the +3, +4, +5, and +6 valence states of Plutonium. He is a co-author of the Complex Ions of Pu +3 published in the Plutonium Project Record p 348; he participated with Roy Greenlee in the determination of the half lives of Pu 239 and Pu 240.  Dr. Ames retired as VP and Gen. Mgr. of McDonnell-Douglas Research Laboratories.

1:40 PM – George Mahfouz – “The Mound Project”

Manhattan Project Veteran – Houdaille-Hershey and Monsanto Mound Project 

• George Mahfouz - After graduating from the State University of Iowa in 1942 Mr. Mahfouz was employed by U. S. Rubber, Houdaille-Hershey Corp., and finally by Monsanto Chemical Company from which he retired in November 1986. He was a part of the Manhattan Project in 1943 starting with the Houdaille Hershey Company.  During a 44 year career, his experience has covered plant operations, process design, plant design, field engineer, chemical plant construction and start up, project engineer; project manager and finally engineering manager.

2:15 PM – William J. “Bill” Wilcox – “Oak Ridge & The Manhattan Project”

Manhattan Project Veteran – Oak Ridge – Y12 

• Bill Wilcox – Bill received a B.A. in Chemistry at Washington & Lee Univ. and a Masters in Industrial Management at the Univ. of Tennessee.  He is a 62 year resident of Oak Ridge.  He joined the Manhattan Project in May 1943 (Rochester, NY) and came to Y-12 in October, 1943. He worked at Y-12 for six years and then transferred to K-25.  He worked at K-25 for 20 years managing R&D for reducing the cost of gaseous diffusion and developing the gas centrifuge process.  Following this, he worked for 12 years as Technical Director for the Union Carbide Nuclear Division in charge of all the research and technical service organizations at K-25 and Y-12 until 1981.

3:00 PM – Joe Papalia – “The Decision to Drop”

509^th Composite Group Historian 

• Joe Papalia - Joe is a former history teacher and a recently retired Probation Officer living in Long Island, NY. He holds a Masters Degree in Political Science from Queens College, NY. He began collecting Presidential Documents in the early seventies and gradually specialized in the field of the atomic missions of World War II. Since 1984, he has attended many of the reunions of the 509th Composite Group, written articles which were both published in magazines and collectors newsletters, and given presentations at various organizational functions.

3:35 PM – Nancy Bartlit – “Voices from Los Alamos”

Manhattan Project Descendent – Columbia Univ.; Kellex, Oak Ridge 

• Nancy Bartlit - Nancy Reynolds Bartlit is the daughter of Thomas George Reynolds, who studied isotope separation under Professor Harold Urey at Columbia University to achieve his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering while also working on the Columbia War Research Project.  As an employee of the Kellex Corporation, he was a project and process engineer on the uranium diffusion separation plant at Oak Ridge, for which he received the Kellex Key at the end of the war.  Nancy earned a BA degree in history from Smith College and an MA in international communications from the University of New Mexico.  She taught in Japan for two years after college, tutored Japanese in Los Alamos, and is co-author of Silent Voices of World War II: When Sons of the Land of Enchantment Met the Sons of the Land of the Rising Sun, a recently published book by Sunstone Press.  Nancy has lived in Los Alamos for 43 years, was elected chairman of the County Council, and now presides over the Los Alamos Historical Society.

4:10 PM – Gordon Lindner – “The Special Engineer Detachment”

Manhattan Project Veteran – SED – Oak Ridge – Y12 

• Gordon Lindner – Gordon Lindner received his BS in mechanical engineering from Montana State University.  In August 1944 he was assigned to the Special Engineer Detachment at Oak Ridge working at the Y-12 Electromagnetic Separation Facility.  Gordon has 3 children, 6 grand children and 6 great grand children.  He has lived in Oak Ridge for many years and is very active in volunteer activities.  Gordon will talk about the important contributions made by the S.E.D.’s.

4:45 PM – “Deb” Johnson – “Brighter than a Thousand Suns”

Manhattan Project Veteran – SED – Los Alamos/Trinity Site 

• Delbert “Deb” Johnson – Mr. Johnson will relate his experiences with the U. S. Army’s special engineer detachment leading up to the world’s first test of the atomic bomb at Alamogordo, NM on July 16, 1945.