Seth Neddermeyer
Seth Henry Neddermeyer (born September 16, 1907 in Richmond , Michigan , † January 29, 1988 in Seattle ) was an American physicist and co-discoverer of the muon .
Neddermeyer studied at Stanford University (Bachelor in 1929) and received his doctorate in 1935 under Robert Oppenheimer at Caltech , where he was a Research Fellow until 1941. During the Second World War, he worked for the Proximity Fuze Project of the National Bureau of Standards (1941 to 1943) and then, at Oppenheimer's invitation, worked for the Manhattan Project until 1946 . From 1946 he was an associate professor and later professor at the University of Washington . From 1973 he was Professor Emeritus there.
At the Manhattan Project in 1943 he was an energetic advocate of the implosion concept for the atomic bomb (with plutonium as a fission material), a concept that was initially received with skepticism at the time. Neddermeyer carried out the first in-depth theoretical analysis in a memorandum dated April 1943. Oppenheimer then made him head of a new group, the later E-5 (Implosion) Group . Difficulties in bringing about a perfect spherically symmetrical implosion, however, led to the involvement of the explosives expert George Kistiakowsky , who finally took over the group from Neddermeyer, which bitterly Neddermeyer. Other contributions to the implosion concept were made by John von Neumann and Edward Teller , among others . The implosion concept was then implemented in the Trinity test and in the bomb on Nagasaki ( Fat Man ) and in almost all later atomic bombs.
Together with Carl David Anderson he discovered the muons in 1936 .
In 1945 he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . In 1982 he received the Enrico Fermi Prize .
Web links
- Seth H. Neddermeyer. In: Physics History Network. American Institute of Physics
- Charles Weiner: Interview with Seth Neddermeyer. In: Oral Histories. May 30, 1972 (English).
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Neddermeyer, Seth |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Neddermeyer, Seth Henry (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 16, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Richmond, Michigan |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 29, 1988 |
| Place of death | Seattle |