Egon Bretscher

Egon Bretscher
Bretscher's Los Alamos identity badge photo
Born(1901-05-23)23 May 1901
Zurich, Switzerland
Died16 April 1973(1973-04-16) (aged 71)
Zurich, Switzerland
Alma mater
Spouse
Hanna Greminger
(m. 1931)
[1]
Children5, including Mark and Anthony
Scientific career
Institutions

Egon Bretscher CBE (23 May 1901 – 16 April 1973)[2] was a Swiss-born British chemist and nuclear physicist[3] and Head of the Nuclear Physics Division from 1948 to 1966[4] at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, also known as Harwell Laboratory, in Harwell, United Kingdom. He was one of the pioneers in nuclear fission research and one of the first to foresee that plutonium could be used as an energy source.[5] His work on nuclear physics led to his involvement in the British atomic bomb research project Tube Alloys and his membership of the British Mission to the Manhattan Project[6] at Los Alamos, where he worked in Enrico Fermi's Advanced Development Division in the F-3 Super Experimentation group.[7] His contributions up to 1945 are discussed by Margaret Gowing in her "Britain and Atomic Energy, 1935-1945."

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Times was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Egon Bretscher". National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Atomic Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  3. ^ French, Anthony (October 1973). "Egon Bretscher". Physics Today. 26 (10): 73. Bibcode:1973PhT....26j..73F. doi:10.1063/1.3128290.
  4. ^ Morton Szasz, Ferenc (1992). British Scientists and the Manhattan Project: The Los Alamos Years. Springer. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-349-12731-3.
  5. ^ Ferenc, Morton Szasz (1992). British Scientists and the Manhattan Project: The Los Alamos Years. London: Springer. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-349-12731-3.
  6. ^ "Papers and correspondence of Egon Bretscher, 1901-1973 - Archives Hub". Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  7. ^ Hawkins, D. (1 December 1961). Manhattan District History Project Y the Los Alamos Project Vol. I Inception Until August 1945 (Report). doi:10.2172/1087644.