Harold Agnew #529

Harold Agnew was born in Denver, Colorado in 1921. He received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Denver in 1942.

He joined Fermi’s research group at Chicago in 1942. He was sent to Columbia and then moved with Fermi back to Chicago and participated in the construction of the pile under the west stands of Stagg Field. He was a witness at the initiation of the first controlled nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942. Following this event he moved to Los Alamos in 1943. On August 6, 1945 he flew with the 509th Composite Group to Hiroshima with Luis Alvarez and measured, from the air, over the target, the yield of the first use of the atomic bomb. In 1946 he returned to Chicago to complete his graduate studies and received a Ph.D. in 1949 under Fermi’s direction.

Following his stay at Chicago he returned to Los Alamos in the Physics Division and eventually became the Weapons Division leader (1964-70). In 1970 he became director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. In 1979 he retired and became president of General Atomics and retired again in 1983. He was scientific advisor to SACEUR at NATO (1961-64), a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee (1965-73), and a White House science councilor (1982-89). He was chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1974-78).

He also had a political career being a New Mexico state senator from 1955 to 61 when he resigned to join NATO. He has received many recognitions for his service, including the E.O. Lawrence Award in 1966 and the Enrico Fermi Award of the Department of Energy in 1978. He is presently adjunct professor at the University of California at San Diego.

While at DU, he was president of the sophomore and senior classes and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was initiated into Alpha Zeta in 1939.

He and his wife Beverly have two children, Nancy and John.