Stafford L. Warren
Stafford Leak Warren (born June 19, 1896 in Maxwell , New Mexico , † July 26, 1981 in Pacific Palisades , Los Angeles , California ) was an American nuclear medicine doctor .
Stafford Warren studied medicine at the University of California , Berkeley ( bachelor's degree in 1918) and medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (MD 1922). He was a post-doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University and from 1926 Assistant Professor and from 1930 Associate Professor in the Radiology Department at Rochester University . At that time, among other things, he made early attempts at mammography (he developed a stereoscopic technique to diagnose breast cancer in breast x-rays) and produced color images of living cancer cells.
In 1943 he became chief medical officer (Chief Medical Officer of the Manhattan Engineer District, MED) in the Manhattan Project with the rank of Colonel. General Leslie Groves selected him after a nationwide search primarily because of his reputation as a radiologist. He first went to Oak Ridge, but also worked in Chicago , Los Alamos , Hanford and other places. He took part in the Trinity test , the evaluation of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Operation Crossroads . In Hiroshima he was one of the first US officers and received his sword from the Japanese city commander at the formal handover. He came to the conclusion that the residual radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not be a major problem and that the main damage came from the gamma radiation in the explosion, for which he was later criticized by the historian Eileen Welsome, who accused him of deliberately trivializing the fallout consequences . He later avoided talking about his experiences in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but defended the need to be dropped. He was responsible for personnel safety at Operation Crossroads, but struggled to assert himself with the military, which frivolously exposed its personnel to danger, and finally pushed for an early termination. After these negative experiences for him, he also publicly warned of the dangers of fallout (as in an article in Life Magazine in August 1947). His successor at MED, James Cooney, accused him of inflaming excessive public hysteria. His fears only attracted greater attention after the hydrogen bomb tests ( Operation Castle ) with the resulting radiation, which ultimately led to the Partial Test Ban Treaty .
In 1946 he left the military, was temporarily head of the medical division of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (he was succeeded by Shields Warren ) and in 1947 was founding dean of the medical school and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). There he initiated a nuclear energy program and directed the construction of the first nuclear reactor for medical purposes. In 1962 he became UCLA Vice Chancellor for Health Service. From 1963 to 1965 he advised Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson on mental retardation . In 1965 he returned to UCLA.
In 1971 he received the Enrico Fermi Prize . He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit for his work on the Manhattan Project .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ welsome, The Plutonium Files, Random House 2010
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Warren, Stafford L. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Warren, Stafford Leak (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American nuclear medicine doctor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 19, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Maxwell , New Mexico |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 26, 1981 |
| Place of death | Pacific Palisades , California |