Boyce McDaniel

Boyce McDaniel
Boyce McDaniel at Los Alamos
Boyce McDaniel at Los Alamos
Born(1917-06-11)June 11, 1917
DiedMay 8, 2002(2002-05-08) (aged 84)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materOhio Wesleyan University (B.S.),
Case School of Applied Science (M.S.),
Cornell University (Ph.D.)
Known forPerformed the final check on the first atomic bomb.
Scientific career
FieldsNuclear physics, Accelerator physics
InstitutionsMIT,
Manhattan Project,
Laboratory for Nuclear Studies, Cornell,
Fermilab
Doctoral advisorsRobert Bacher
Hans Bethe[1]

Boyce Dawkins McDaniel (June 11, 1917 – May 8, 2002) was an American nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and later directed the Cornell University Laboratory of Nuclear Studies (LNS). McDaniel was skilled in constructing "atom smashing" devices to study the fundamental structure of matter and helped to build the most powerful particle accelerators of his time. Together with his graduate student, he invented the pair spectrometer.

During World War II, McDaniel used his electronics expertise to help develop cyclotrons used to separate Uranium isotopes. McDaniel is also noted as having performed the final check on the first atomic bomb prior to its detonation in the Trinity test, during a lightning storm.

  1. ^ McDaniel, B. D. (1943). The absorption of slow neutrons by indium. Cornell, New York: Cornell University. The author wishes to express his appreciation to Professors R.F. Bacher and H.A. Bethe for their personal direction of this work.

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