Henry De Wolf Smyth

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Henry De Wolf Smyth (right) with Richard C. Tolman (1945)

Henry De Wolf Smyth (also Henry DeWolf Smyth ; born May 1, 1898 in Clinton , New York , † September 11, 1986 ) was an American physicist , diplomat and administrative specialist who performed some important tasks in the early development of nuclear energy . In essence, he is likely to have become known as the author and editor of the Smyth Report named after him and published on August 12, 1945 . In this official government report , produced at the suggestion of Leslie R. Groves , the history of the development and production of the first nuclear weapons developed as part of the Manhattan Project was presented for the first time.The report was published by Princeton University Press in eight editions until 1948, the first edition of 60,000 copies was sold out within a day.

Life

Smyth was born in Clinton to Charles Henry Smyth , Jr. and Ruth Anne Phelps. When his father became a professor of geology, the family moved to Princeton in 1905 . There Smyth attended Miss Fine's School and then until 1914 the Lawrenceville School. A subsequent study at Princeton University , he completed in 1918 with graduation. He then worked with Karl Taylor Compton in a research project, the results of which he summarized in July 1919 in a paper entitled "Tyndall beam and size of particles" . Until the end of World War I, he worked in a chemical warfare laboratory in Washington DC and on the Aberdeen Proving Ground test site . In 1920 he obtained a master’s degree in physics from Princeton, and in 1921 he also received his Ph.D. after the faculty issued a special permit to take two exams in one semester. With a grant from the National Research Council he worked from 1921 to 1923 with Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge in England. There he received his doctorate again and then continued his research until 1924 at Princeton.

From 1924 he taught, like his father and his brother before, at Princeton. In 1925 he was appointed assistant professor, 1929 associate professor and 1936 professor. Initially he dealt with the ionization of gases under the influence of electron beams and electric fields, molecular structures and atomic energy. In 1931 and 1932 he worked in Göttingen on a Guggenheim scholarship. From 1934 onwards, with the discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick and the advances in accelerator technology achieved by John Cockcroft , Ernest Walton and Ernest O. Lawrence , he finally turned to nuclear physics . Most of his scientific publications were written between 1919 and 1945, including Matter, Motion and Electricity , published with Charles W. Ufford in 1939 , one of the first to attempt a fundamental introduction from classical physics to the most recent To offer developments. From 1935 to 1949 he headed the physics department at Princeton University, during which time two cyclotrons were built there (1935, 1946). Smyth spent a lot of time reorganizing the introductory courses and was particularly committed to integrating teaching and research. He tried to use examples to improve the quality of the lectures.

From 1940 he took a leave of absence from the Uranium Committee of the National Defense Research Committee , where he worked with Fermi, Szilard and JA Wheeler . With the electromagnetic separation of the uranium isotopes carried out at his suggestion, larger amounts of uranium-235 could be obtained between autumn 1941 and 1943. After the Uranium Committee was assigned to the Office of Scientific Research and Development , which dealt with military matters, in 1941 he took over budget and program monitoring for 18 months in order to be able to develop recommendations for the continuation or discontinuation of individual research and development measures. From 1943 to 1945 he advised the Manhattan Project. From 1943 to 1944 he worked initially as a vice director and later as a consultant for the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago , where a group led by Arthur Compton was concerned with the production of heavy water that is used to regulate the speed of neutrons in the process chain has been. In addition, he continued to head the physics faculty at Princeton, which was severely understaffed during the war.

In 1944, as part of the Tolman Commission , Smyth was supposed to work out recommendations for the further development of nuclear energy after the end of the war. Following his own suggestion in the spring of that year, from April 1944 Groves gave him the official task of documenting the scientific work and the organization of the atomic bomb project. To this end, he was given free access to all relevant information, persons and work areas of the project that were otherwise subject to strict access restrictions, was able to compile data and talk to the key people. The report was created in the utmost secrecy over a period of about 15 months. A few days after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and after checking for any security-relevant information, the Atomic Energy for Military Purposes: The Official Report on the Development of the Atomic Bomb Under the Auspices of the United States Government or briefly as the Smyth Report designated report by President Truman released for publication on 11 and 12 August 1945 after his return from the Potsdam Conference . This report, published by Princeton University Press in September 1945 and sold in more than 160,000 copies, was the first to keep Americans informed of developments in nuclear weapons technology since 1939. Smyth renounced the copyright and his income from the publication of this work, the work was distributed in the public domain . It corresponded to his conviction that the ultimate responsibility for the politics of the nation lies with the citizen, but that he can only live up to his responsibility if he is informed about the effects of the politics .

After the war he first returned to Princeton, from 1946 he took up the Joseph Henry Professorship. He was also a trustee of the Associated Universities Inc. , which operated the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory . In his speeches, he paid particular attention to the relationship between science, society and government. After other nations had acquired the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons, three aspects about nuclear energy were regularly mentioned in his speeches and in his publications: the historical development of nuclear energy, its use in peace and the need for international monitoring of the future development of nuclear energy .

Front page of the Smyth report

In May 1949 he gave up the leadership of the physics faculty at Princeton and changed from May 30, 1949 to September 30, 1954 as a member of the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). As the only scientist on the panel, he was responsible for the further research and development of the American nuclear energy program and the planning of future nuclear power plants. He played an essential role in two events during his work at AEC, first in the decision to develop the hydrogen bomb and then in the Oppenheimer case . Before 1949, the AEC had already considered the development of a hydrogen bomb to be possible, but initially only carried out the relevant research projects with a few specialists. After the detonation of the first Soviet atomic bomb in August 1949, pressure increased on the AEC to advance the development of the hydrogen bomb with greater effort, in order to preserve the superiority of American military technology. The advisory committee made up of nine scientists led by Oppenheimer, however, spoke out against accelerating the corresponding research program. After Senator Edwin C. Johnson brought the accelerated development debate to the public on November 1, 1949, the AEC shared the recommendation of the advisory committee and the opinions of the five AEC members with President Truman and left the final decision to him. The chairman of the AEC, David E. Lilienthal and the commissioners Sumner Pike and Smyth had spoken out against an expansion of the program, the commissioners Lewis Strauss and Gordon E. Dean spoke out in favor. On this occasion, Smyth also addressed the international control of nuclear weapons that he believed to be necessary. After Truman had received statements from the Defense and State Ministries, he announced his decision on January 31, 1950 to advance the program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

From 1961 to 1970, Smyth was the United States Representative and a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The transfer of responsibility for the safety of fissile materials from national sovereignty to the responsibility of the IAEA goes back to his initiative. Former NASA coordinator Thomas Keith Glennan has been appointed as his successor as the United States' ambassador to the IAEA . Smyth advised the United States Department of State on the drafting of international treaties for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. During the safety review of his friend J. Robert Oppenheimer, he was the only member of the Atomic Energy Commission to take the dissenting opinion that Oppenheimer was not a safety risk.

Smyth had been married to Mary de Coningh since June 30, 1936.

Honors

In 1947 Smyth was elected to the American Philosophical Society and in 1956 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Award . On October 14, 1968, Smyth was awarded the Atoms for Peace Award together with Sigvard Eklund and Abdus Salam .

Since 1972, the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) have alternated the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award, named after DeWolf Smyth, to living people for the international promotion of the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The first recipient of the award in 1972 was Henry DeWolf Smyth himself.

Princeton University has named a physics professorship after him in his honor.

Works (excerpt)

  • Matter, Motion and Electricity (with Charles W. Ufford), 1939
  • Atomic Energy for Military Purposes: The Official Report on the Development of the Atomic Bomb Under the Auspices of the United States Government , 1945 ( online at atomicarchive.com, excerpts at nuclearweaponarchive.org, both in English)
  • Atomic energy and its utilization in the war , translation by Friedrich Dessauer, Basel, 1947

literature

Quotes

  1. ↑

    "" The ultimate responsibility for our nation's policy rests on its citizens and they can discharge such responsibilities wisely only if they are informed. ""

    - see overview biography on amphilsoc.org

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Excerpt from a publication by Princeton University Press, on press.princeton.edu, viewed December 15, 2009 (PDF, English; 209 kB)
  2. ↑ Tenure of Commissioners: AEC Commissioners 1946-1975 ( Memento of February 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) in Nuclear Regulatory Legislation , 107th Congress, Vol. 6, Washington, June 2002, viewed on nrc.gov, December 6, 2009 (PDF)
  3. ↑ a b H. D. Smyth leaving the board ( memento of the original from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 123 kB), IAEA publication on the occasion of Smyth's departure from the Board of Governors, on iaea.org, viewed December 6, 2009 (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iaea.org
  4. ↑ Glennan nominated to International Atom Group (PDF; 1.2 MB) in Brookhaven Bulletin , June 4, 1970, on bnl.gov, viewed December 6, 2009 (English)
  5. ↑ Decision and Opinions of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in the Matter of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer - Statement by the Atomic Energy Commission, June 29, 1954: Dissenting opinion of Henry de Wolf Smyth on atomicarchive.com, viewed December 6, 2009 (English)
  6. ^ Member History: Henry DeWolf Smyth. American Philosophical Society, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Announcement ( Memento of the original dated December 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the presentation of the Atoms for Peace Award 1968 at the International Atomic Energy Agency , on iaea.org, viewed December 2, 2009 (PDF, English; 50 kB)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iaea.org
  8. ^ Description of the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award on ans.org, the website of the American Nuclear Society, as viewed December 4, 2009
  9. ^ Winner of the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award on ans.org, the website of the American Nuclear Society, viewed December 4, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Smyth, Henry De Wolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smyth, Henry DeWolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist (Smyth Report) and United States Ambassador to the IAEA
DATE OF BIRTH May 1, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Clinton , New York
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1986