The U.S. government’s Manhattan Project, which led to the development of the first nuclear weapons, was a massive but highly secretive World War II undertaking that involved thousands of scientists and engineers at dozens of sites across the nation. They included a few with Rolla connections, most notably Thomas G. Day, a professor of organic chemistry at S&T in the 1940s, who served as an “administrative assistant to one of the scientific divisions” and “gave himself wholeheartedly to the work and made a real contribution to it,” wrote Harold C. Urey, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist who played a significant role in the development of the atom bomb. Another Rolla professor, Harold Q. Fuller, worked on the Manhattan Project during 1944-1945 before joining the S&T physics faculty, where he served as department chair 1948-1970. According to the Atomic Heritage Foundation, two Rolla graduates also worked on the Manhattan Project. Max L. Custis, a 1944 chemical engineering graduate, and Sam Tarson, who earned a mechanical engineering degree in 1947, both worked in a “Special Engineer Detachment” at the K-25 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Share This Story

Spark a Memory?

Share your story! Fill out the form below to share your fondest memory or anecdote of S&T. If you'd prefer not typing, you can also share by phone at 833-646-3715 (833-Miner150).

Amanda (Kay Hansen) and Chris Byrd

Amanda (Kay Hansen) and Chris Byrd

It was a fire drill at TJ Residence Hall in September 1999 that first brought Amanda (Kay Hansen) and Chris…

Laura Pirrone and Patrick Corcoran

Laura Pirrone and Patrick Corcoran

Laura Pirrone and Patrick Corcoran had two things in common when they met at S&T.  “We actually went to high…

Lynsey (Jorgenson) and Bret Grinde

Lynsey (Jorgenson) and Bret Grinde

It didn’t take long for Lynsey (Jorgenson) and Bret Grinde to meet each other on campus in August 2005. “We…

Laying a foundation

Laying a foundation

The Hasselmann Alumni House wouldn’t exist without the involvement of  Matt Coco, a 1966  civil engineering graduate – even the…

Keith and Bobbie (Smith) Wedge

Keith and Bobbie (Smith) Wedge

Keith Wedge met his future wife, Bobbie (Smith), in November 1967 while he was helping establish a chapter of Pi…

NIH’s first woman scientist

NIH’s first woman scientist

Dr. Ida Bengtson was the first woman the National Institutes of Health (NIH) hired as a scientist in 1916. For…