Charles Critchfield (nonfiction): Difference between revisions
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[[File:Charles_Critchfield_ID_badge. | [[File:Charles_Critchfield_ID_badge.png|thumb|Charles Critchfield's Los Alamos ID badge photo.]]'''Charles Louis Critchfield''' (June 7, 1910 – February 12, 1994) was an American mathematical physicist. A graduate of George Washington University, where he earned his PhD in Physics under the direction of [[Edward Teller (nonfiction)|Edward Teller]] in 1939, he conducted research in ballistics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Ballistic Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, and received three patents for improved sabot designs. | ||
In 1943, Teller and [[J. Robert Oppenheimer (nonfiction)|Robert Oppenheimer]] persuaded Critchfield to come to the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he joined the Ordnance Division under Captain William Parsons on the gun-type fission weapons, Little Boy and Thin Man. After it was discovered that the Thin Man design would not work, he was transferred to Robert Bacher's Gadget Division as the leader of the Initiator group, which was responsible for the design and testing of the "Urchin" neutron initiator that provided the burst of neutrons that kick-started the nuclear detonation of the Fat Man weapon. | In 1943, Teller and [[J. Robert Oppenheimer (nonfiction)|Robert Oppenheimer]] persuaded Critchfield to come to the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he joined the Ordnance Division under Captain William Parsons on the gun-type fission weapons, Little Boy and Thin Man. After it was discovered that the Thin Man design would not work, he was transferred to Robert Bacher's Gadget Division as the leader of the Initiator group, which was responsible for the design and testing of the "Urchin" neutron initiator that provided the burst of neutrons that kick-started the nuclear detonation of the Fat Man weapon. | ||
Revision as of 05:33, 13 February 2020
Charles Louis Critchfield (June 7, 1910 – February 12, 1994) was an American mathematical physicist. A graduate of George Washington University, where he earned his PhD in Physics under the direction of Edward Teller in 1939, he conducted research in ballistics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Ballistic Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, and received three patents for improved sabot designs.
In 1943, Teller and Robert Oppenheimer persuaded Critchfield to come to the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he joined the Ordnance Division under Captain William Parsons on the gun-type fission weapons, Little Boy and Thin Man. After it was discovered that the Thin Man design would not work, he was transferred to Robert Bacher's Gadget Division as the leader of the Initiator group, which was responsible for the design and testing of the "Urchin" neutron initiator that provided the burst of neutrons that kick-started the nuclear detonation of the Fat Man weapon.
After the war he became a professor at the University of Minnesota, and then vice president for research at the Convair division of General Dynamics, where he worked on the Atlas family of rockets.
In 1961, J. Carson Mark and Norris Bradbury offered him a position at Los Alamos, which he held until he retired in 1977.
In the News
Fiction cross-reference
- Crimes against mathematical constants
- Crimes against physical constants
- Gnomon algorithm
- Mathematician
- Mathematics
Nonfiction cross-reference
- Hans Bethe (nonfiction) - Colleague
- Norris Bradbury (nonfiction)
- George Gamow (nonfiction) - Influence
- Mathematician (nonfiction)
- Mathematics (nonfiction)
- J. Robert Oppenheimer (nonfiction)
- Edward Teller (nonfiction) - Doctoral advisor
- John von Neumann (nonfiction) - Influence
External links:
- Charles Critchfield @ Wikipedia