HSCOC 212 People

Alexander Fleming

a. A Scottish biologist, pharmacist and botanist. He discovered Penicillium notatum in 1928 which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.

Max Weber

a. A German sociologist, philosopher who is credited as one of the founders of sociology in the beginning of the 20th Century (1900's).

Werner von Braun

a. A German aerospace engineer and space architect credited with inventing the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany and the Saturn V rocket for the United States. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology, however he was a member of the Nazi Party and the SS. He was brought over to the United States with about 1500 other scientists, because of Operation Paperclip. There he developed rockets that launched America's first space satellite and first series of moon missions.

James Franck

a. A German physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics with Gustav Hertz for their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom. Franck's report, Report of the Committee on Political and Social Problems, compiled and signed by scientists in 1945 saying that the atomic bomb should not be used on Japan.

Wiheln Roetgen

a. A German physicist, who produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range known as X-rays, which won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. He also has an element named after him, roetgenium.

Max Planck

a. A German theoretical Physicist who oriented quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. He was one of the principle founders of quantum theory. He was in Germany during World War II, however, while he stayed in his position of scientific excellence, he witnessed many of his friends and colleges lose their positions due to their Jewish heritage.

Ishii Shiro

a. A Japanese army medical officer, and microbiologist who was the director of Unit 731 (Ping Fan), a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army involved in forced and frequently lethal human experiments during World War II. Also the Professor of Immunology in the Tokyo Army medical school. In 1932 was given permission to do biological weapons research in Manchuria, in the norther city of Harbin. After first prison camp was blown up, he made Ping Fan in 1939, and did research on anthrax, plague, gas gangrene, tetanus, cholera. Estimates around 3K to 250k people were killed- most likely only 10K.

Marie Curie

a. A Polish physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and woman to win twice, and the only person to win twice in multiple sciences. She created the theory of radioactivity and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium.

Joseph Rotblat

a. A Polish physicist who was the only physicist to leave the Manhattan Project on the grounds of conscience. His work on nuclear fallout major contribution towards the ratification of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Carl van Clausewitz

a. A Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the "moral" and political aspects of war. He was a realist, who drew his ideas from the European Enlightenment. He talked about the "fog of war".

Billy Mitchell

a. A US general who is regarded as the father of the US Air Force. Served in France during WWI and after the war was appointed deputy director of the Air Service. He started to argue for more funding invested into air power and believed this would be vital in future wars. He particularly talked about the ability of bombers to sink battleships.

Leslie Groves

a. A United States Army Corps of Engineers officer who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon. He also directed the Manhattan Project during World War II. After his job to manage the Manhattan Project was given to the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1947 he headed the Armed Forced Special Weapons Project.

E.U. Condon

a. A distinguished American nuclear physicist, a pioneer in quantum mechanics and a participant in the development of radar and nuclear weapons as a part of the Manhattan Project. He left Los Almos because of the rough working conditions. He was a target of the House Un-American Activities Committee on the grounds he was a follower of a new revolutionary movement, quantum mechanics.

Robert Fulton

a. American Engineer and inventor who is credited with developing a commercially successful steamboat called the Clermont. In 1800, he was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to design the Nautilus which was the first practical submarine in history.

Karl Compton

a. American Physicist and president of MIT from 1930-1948. Worked as the chair to a new Scientific Advisory Board. He was a member of the NDRC and became the head of Division D which was responsible for assembling a group of academic and industrial engineers and scientists that would study primarily radar, fire control, and thermal radiation.

Stanley Milgram

a. American Social Psychologist best known for his controversial experiment on obedience in 1963. His experiments were on how far one would go to shock other subjects. Wanted to test if there was a reason for so many people obeying to the Nazi's even though they didn't agree to the regime themselves.

James Conant

a. American chemist and the first US Ambassador to West Germany. During World War I he served in the US Army working on the development of poison gases. National Defense Research Committee chairman in 1941. He was the chairman during the development of synthetic rubber and the first two atomic bombs (the Manhattan Project). He was also part of the Interim Committee that advised President Harry Truman to use atomic bombs on Japan.

Ancel Keys

a. American scientist who studied the influence of diet on health, focused on the Mediterranean Diet and Starvation. He developed a more portable nonperishable ration that would provide enough calories to sustain soldiers in the field for up to two weeks (the K-ration).

J Robert Oppenheimer

a. American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California Berkeley. He was the head of the Los Alamos laboratory. Oppenheimer is among those called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project. After the war, he became the chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission.

Merle Tuve

a. An American geophysicist who was the founding director of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He was a pioneer in the use of pulsed radio waves who's discoveries opened the way to the development of radar and nuclear energy

Rachel Carson

a. An American marine biologist and conservationist that wrote the book Silent Spring and other writing are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. She primarily fought against the environmental problems that she believed were caused by synthetic pesticides like DDT. Her work eventually lead to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Harold Lasswell

a. An American political scientist and communications theorist. His work was important in the post-World War II development of behaviorism and to create and improve on propaganda. He inspired the definition of propaganda given by the Institute of Propaganda Analysis. He published the influential article Garrison State.

Henry L. Stimson

a. An American statesman, lawyer and politician. He served as Secretary of War under President Taft and President Roosevelt and Truman. He articulated the Stimson Doctrine which announced American opposition to Japanese expansion in Asia. He was also a leading hawk in calling a war with Germany in WWII. Oversaw the building and use of the atomic bombs. He published The Decision to Use the Bomb.

Lise Meitner

a. An Austrian physicist who worked on radioactivity and nuclear physics. She worked with Otto Hahn who, instead of her, went to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She is considered one of the most glaring examples of women's scientific achievement being overlooked by the Nobel committee

Neils Bohr

a. Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to the understanding of the atomic model and quantum theory. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. He developed the Bohr model of the atom. Met with Heisenberg in Copenhagen to discuss nuclear research.

Werner Heisenberg

a. He was a German Physicist that was taken prisoner by American troops during World War II and a key pioneer in quantum mechanics. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for "the creation of quantum mechanics". He was instrumental in planning the first German Nuclear reactor, and he did atomic research for Germany during World War II.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

a. He was a US Navy Admiral who was called the "most important American strategist of the nineteenth century". His thoughts revolved around that greater naval power will have greater worldwide impact; it was most famously presented in his book, the Influence of Sea Power Upon History. This ultimately caused a European naval race in the 1890's which culminated in the First World War.

Vannevar Bush

a. He was in inventor and science administrator who during WWII headed the US Office of Scientific Research and Development. He was essentially the head of all military R&D during wartime, including the Manhattan project. He was also known in engineering for his work on analog computers. In 1945, he published an essay, called "As We May Think" which pretty much predicted computers and influenced the memex influenced generations of computer scientists. He became the chairman of the National Defense Research Committee before the director of OSRD.

Leo Szilard

a. Hungarian-American physicist and inventor. He conceived the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, patented the idea of a nuclear reactor with Enrico Fermi, and in 1939 wrote the letter for Albert Einstein's signature that resulted in the Manhattan Project that built the atomic bomb.

Florence Nightingale

a. She was the founder of modern nursing, serving as a manager of nurses during the Crimean War. She gave nursing a highly favorable reputation and became an icon of Victorian Culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night. She established the first secular nursing school at St. Thomas' Hospital.

Walt Rostow

a. United States economist and political theorist who served as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to US President Lyndon B Johnson. He was a staunch anti-communist and strongly supported the US involvement in the Vietnam War. He create the hierarchical theory of development which included five stages from traditional society to mass consumption. He believed the US should try to move all traditional societies into the global economy and this was important for national security.