"American Physicist" Norman Hilberry Signed Album Page For Sale

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"American Physicist" Norman Hilberry Signed Album Page:
$489.99

Up for sale "American Physicist" Norman Hilberry Signed Album Page. 

March 28, 1986) was an American physicist, best known as the director of

the Argonne National

Laboratory from 1956 to 1961. In December 1942 he was the man

who stood ready with an axe to cut the scram line

during the start up of Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor to achieve criticality. Horace van

Norman Hilberry was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 11, 1899. He received his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree from Oberlin College in 1921, and then became an assistant in

physics at the University of Chicago. In

1925 he became an instructor in physics at Washington Square College in

New York, where he rose to become an assistant professor in

1928. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

from the University of Chicago in 1941, writing his thesis on "Extensive

cosmic-ray showers and the energy distribution of the primary cosmic

rays". In

1941, Hilberry joined what would become the Manhattan Project, the effort to create an atomic bomb during World War II. He moved to the University of Chicago to

help Arthur H. Compton in

any way possible.Hilberry became associate director of Compton's

Metallurgical Project. On December 2, 1942, he was present for the

start up of Chicago Pile-1, the

world's first nuclear reactor to

achieve criticality. Because of

fears that the reaction could "run away", Hilberry stood ready with

an axe to cut the scram line, a manila rope connected

to control rods that could quickly shut the reactor down. He was also present

for the start-up of the X-10 Graphite Reactor in

November 1943, and the reactors at the Hanford Engineer Works the

following year. He returned to the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago in 1945.

Hilberry became assistant director of the Metallurgical Laboratory in

1943. On July 1, 1946, the Metallurgical Laboratory

became Argonne National

Laboratory, the first designated National Laboratory, with Walter Zinn as director, and Hilberry as associate director. He became

the deputy director in 1949, and the director in June 1956, on Zinn's departure. He was the first director

of Argonne's International School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, an

important part of the Eisenhower Administration's Atoms for Peace program, from 1955 to 1956. He stepped down in November 1961, and was

replaced by Albert Crewe. He

remained at Argonne as a senior scientist until 1964, when he accepted an

appointment as Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the University of Arizona. He

retired and became a professor emeritus in

1985.  Hilberry was the

recipient of the American Nuclear Society's

Arthur Holly Compton Award, and received a citation for meritorious service

from the Atomic

Energy Commission.[2] He was president of the American Nuclear

Society from 1965 to 1966. He was a member of the board of directors of the

Atomic Industry Forum from 1961 to 1968, of the Advisory Committee on US Policy

Toward the International Atomic

Energy Agency in 1962, and of the National Academy of

Sciences' Advisory Committee to the United States Office of

Emergency Preparedness from 1968 to 1973. He

died from complications arising from influenza on March 28, 1986, at the Humana Desert

Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. He was

survived by his wife Ann and daughter Joan.[2] His papers are in the University of Chicago

Library. 

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"American Physicist" Norman Hilberry Signed Album Page

$489.99