Harold Agnew: Difference between revisions

Harold Melvin Agnew (March 28, 1921 – September 29, 2013) was an American physicist, best known for having flown as a scientific observer on the Hiroshima bombing mission and, later, as the third director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Agnew joined the

At the Metallurgical Laboratory, Agnew worked with Enrico Fermi, Walter Zinn and Herbert L. Anderson.^[1] There, he was involved in the construction of Chicago Pile-1. Initially, Agnew worked with the instrumentation. The Geiger counters were calibrated using a radon-beryllium source, and Agnew received too high a dose of radiation. He was then put to work stacking the graphite bricks that were the reactor's neutron moderator. He witnessed the first controlled nuclear chain reaction when the reactor went critical on December 2, 1942.^[4][2][5]

Agnew and Beverly moved to the

Los Alamos ID badges

Harold M. Agnew

Beverly J. Agnew

When experimental work wound down, Agnew was transferred to

With his doctorate in hand, Agnew returned to Los Alamos as a

From 1961 to 1964, he was Scientific Adviser to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). He also held a number of part-time advisory position with the military over the years. He was a member of the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board from 1957 to 1968, and was chairman of the Science Advisory Group of the United States Army's Combat Development Command from 1966 to 1970. He was a member of the Defense Science Board from 1966 to 1970, the Army's Scientific Advisory Panel from 1966 to 1974, and the Army Science Board from 1978 to 1984.^[10]

Agnew became director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1970, when it had 7,000 employees.

In 1979, Agnew resigned from Los Alamos and became President and Chief Executive Officer of General Atomics, a position he held until 1985.^[10] In his letter of resignation to David S. Saxon, the President of the University of California, Agnew wrote that his decision was influenced by "dissatisfaction with University administration policies and a lack of advocacy for the total LASL [Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory] program" and "frustration with what I consider to be a continuing inequitable distribution of defense program funding by the Department of Energy between the LASL and LLL [Lawrence Livermore Laboratory]."^[22]

Agnew chaired the General Advisory Committee of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1974 to 1978, and served as a White House science councillor from 1982 to 1989. He was a member of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel from 1968 to 1974, and from 1978 to 1987. He became an adjunct professor at the University of California, San Diego in 1988. He was the recipient of the E.O. Lawrence Award in 1966, and of the Department of Energy's Enrico Fermi Award in 1978. Along with Hans Bethe, Agnew was the first to receive the Los Alamos National Laboratory Medal. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.^{[5][10][23][24]}

A proponent of

Beverly died on October 11, 2011.[3] Agnew was diagnosed of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and died at his home in Solana Beach, California, on September 29, 2013, while watching football on television.^[15][19] He was survived by his daughter Nancy and son John.^[2] He had arranged to be cremated and his ashes interred with Beverly's at the Guaje Pines Cemetery in Los Alamos.^[29]

In a 2005 BBC interview, Agnew stated, "About three-quarters of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was designed under my tutelage at Los Alamos. That is my legacy."^[9]

Notes