Dear doctorlawyer-ga;
Leo Silvio Lavatelli (b. August 15, 1917, d. May 17, 1998) was the
Professor Emeritus of Physics at University of Illinois. He graduated
from the California Institute of Technology in 1939 and earned an M.A.
in physics from Princeton University in 1943. While at Princeton he
was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project and worked with Robert
R. Wilson on the Isotron Project, a secret endeavor to separate U-235
at Los Alamos, NM. He did not join the physics department at the
University of Illinois until after the war (1950). His original intent
was to work on the cyclotron project but he ended up working in the
new Control Systems Laboratory instead (now known as the Coordinated
Science Laboratory). He retired in 1979 and died in Spring Hope, NC on
May 17, 1998 at the age of 80.
As per your question, “What was Leo Lavatelli's contribution(was his
Chicago work a crucial breakthrough) to Robert Oppenheimer's manhattan
(sic) project and the making of the first atomic bomb on Los Almos,
NM?”, Lavatelli’s work in Illinois could not have had a significant
impact on the Manhattan Project as he had not been tenured in Illinois
until several years after the end of World War II. His work on the
Manhattan Project prior to moving to Illinois, however, was
undoubtedly of great value at the very least. Due to the secretive
nature of the project even to this day, the true significance of the
work completed by him at Los Alamos and the level of assistance that
he provided to Robert Wilson was most assuredly known but to him in
its entirety; but alas, he is no more, and with him goes many unspoken
secrets.
I hope you find my research beneficial.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
Leo S. Lavatelli., Physics Department, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/People/Memorials/Lavatelli-98.htm
Princeton News - Obituary
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/98/c/0522-clips.htm |
