Donald J. Hughes

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Donald James Hughes (born April 2, 1915 in Chicago , Illinois , † April 12, 1960 in Brookhaven , New York ) was an American physicist .

Hughes received his PhD in physics from the University of Chicago in 1940 . At that time he dealt with cosmic rays and for this purpose he took part in an Andean expedition in 1941. He was then a physicist at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory of the US Navy before participating in the Manhattan Project in Chicago in 1943 . Towards the end of the war he was the head of nuclear physics at Argonne National Laboratory , where he led a group on the interaction. After the war he was at Brookhaven National Laboratory , where he continued to work on neutron physics . The data he collected on neutron cross sections were collected in a report, the publication of which was an important part of the international exchange of information at the Atomic Peace Conference in Geneva in 1955.

He made international connections with Soviet scientists and gave lectures on behalf of the US Information Service in Denmark, England, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. In 1953/54 he was Fulbright visiting professor at Oxford.

In 1945 he was a member of a committee under James Franck , which was to work out recommendations on the use of the atomic bomb on behalf of Arthur Holly Compton . The Franck Report spoke out against an operation on cities in Japan and in favor of a demonstration, which was not followed by the US government.

He was President of the Federation of Atomic Scientists in 1955/56.

Fonts

  • Pile Neutron Research, Addison-Wesley 1953
  • Neutron cross section, McGraw Hill 1955, Pergamon Press 1957
  • The neutron story, Garden City: Doubleday 1959
    • German translation: The neutron: the exploration of matter, Munich: Desch 1960
  • About nuclear energy: The possibilities of its peaceful application, Wiesbaden: Rheinische Verlagsanstalt 1959

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hughes, Donald J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hughes, Donald James (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 1960
Place of death Brookhaven , New York