Walter Henry Zinn
Walter Henry Zinn (born December 10, 1906 , Berlin, Ontario, now Kitchener (Ontario) , Canada , † February 14, 2000 , in Clearwater , Florida ) was a Canadian-American scientist and nuclear physicist .
His parents were immigrants of German origin, Johann Zinn and Maria Anna Stoskopf. He studied mathematics at Queen's University in Kingston (Ontario) , where he received a bachelor's degree in 1927 and a master's degree in 1930 . In 1930 he began studying physics at Columbia University . He then took up a teaching position and did research in the field of nuclear fission , he taught in 1927 and 1928 at Queen's University, in 1931 and 1932 at Columbia University - there he also used a laboratory - and from 1932 to 1941 at Queens College of the City University of New York. At the beginning of the Second World War he was an employee of Enrico Fermi in the Manhattan project to develop the atomic bomb . From 1946 to 1956 he was the first director of the Argonne National Laboratory . Here he developed the Experimental Breeder Reactor I , the first practically functioning breeder reactor , which was also the world's first nuclear reactor for electricity generation. Then he founded a consulting firm for nuclear energy , in which he worked until 1970. He was also an advisor on nuclear energy to the US presidents from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Richard Nixon . He is considered to be an important pioneer in fission for energy use.
Zinn received the Atoms for Peace Award on May 18, 1960 together with Alvin M. Weinberg , and in 1969 he was awarded the Enrico Fermi Prize . The Walter H. Zinn Prize of the American Nuclear Society , which has been awarded since 1976 and of which he was first president, is named after Walter Henry Zinn . In 1957 he received an honorary doctorate D.Sc. from Queen's University. In 1956 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences .
Zinn had married Jennie A. Smith († 1964) in 1933, who, like him, had studied at Queen's University. In 1938 he was naturalized in the United States. In 1966 he married his second wife, Mary Teresa Pratt. He left two sons, John Eric and Robert James Zinn, a stepson, Warren Johnson, and nine grandchildren. Another stepson, Robert Johnson, passed away in 1991.
Web links
- Walter Zinn 1907 - 2000 with the Canadian Nuclear Society (English)
- Walter Henry Zinn from the Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, by Alvin M. Weinberg (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walter H. Zinn Award at the American Nuclear Society (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tin, Walter Henry |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Tin, Walter Heinrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian-American nuclear physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 10, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin, Ontario, now Kitchener (Ontario) , Canada |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 14, 2000 |
| Place of death | Clearwater , Florida, USA |