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Ernest Lawrence
Head and shoulders of a man wearing rimless glasses, and a dark suit and tie
Born
Ernest Orlando Lawrence

(1901-08-08)August 8, 1901
Canton, South Dakota,U.S.
DiedAugust 27, 1958(1958-08-27)(aged 57)
Palo Alto, California,U.S.
Education
Known for
Spouse
Mary K. Blumer
​
(m.1932)​
Children6
RelativesJohn H. Lawrence(brother)
Awards
See list
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
Institutions
ThesisThe Photoelectric Effect in Potassium Vapor as a Function of the Frequency of the Light(1924)
Doctoral advisorWilliam Francis Gray Swann
Doctoral students
See list
Signature

Ernest Orlando Lawrence(August 8, 1901 – August 27, 1958) was an Americannuclear physicistand winner of theNobel Prize in Physicsin 1939 for his invention of thecyclotron.[1]He is known for his work onuranium-isotope separationfor theManhattan Project,as well as for founding theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratoryand theLawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

A graduate of theUniversity of South DakotaandUniversity of Minnesota,Lawrence obtained a PhD in physics atYalein 1925. In 1928, he was hired as an associate professor of physics at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,becoming the youngest full professor there two years later. In its library one evening, Lawrence was intrigued by a diagram of an accelerator that producedhigh-energy particles.He contemplated how it could be made compact, and came up with an idea for a circular accelerating chamber between the poles of anelectromagnet.The result was the first cyclotron.

Lawrence went on to build a series of ever larger and more expensive cyclotrons. His Radiation Laboratory became an official department of the University of California in 1936, with Lawrence as its director. In addition to the use of the cyclotron for physics, Lawrence also supported its use in research into medical uses of radioisotopes. DuringWorld War II,Lawrence developed electromagneticisotope separationat the Radiation Laboratory. It used devices known ascalutrons,a hybrid of the standard laboratorymass spectrometerand cyclotron. A huge electromagnetic separation plant was built atOak Ridge, Tennessee,which came to be calledY-12.The process was inefficient, but it worked.

After the war, Lawrence campaigned extensively for government sponsorship of large scientific programs, and was a forceful advocate of "Big Science",with its requirements for big machines and big money. Lawrence strongly backedEdward Teller's campaign for a second nuclear weapons laboratory, which Lawrence located inLivermore, California.After his death, theRegents of the University of Californiarenamed the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory after him. Chemical element number 103 was namedlawrenciumin his honor after its discovery at Berkeley in 1961.

Early life[edit]

Ernest Orlando Lawrence was born inCanton, South Dakota,on August 8, 1901. His parents, Carl Gustavus (1871–1954) and Gunda Regina (née Jacobson) Lawrence (1874–1959), were both the offspring of Norwegian immigrants who had met while teaching at the high school in Canton, where his father was also the superintendent of schools. He had a younger brother,John H. Lawrence,who would become aphysician,and was a pioneer in the field ofnuclear medicine.Growing up, his best friend wasMerle Tuve,who would also go on to become a highly accomplished physicist.[2]

Lawrence attended the public schools of Canton andPierre,then enrolled atSt. Olaf CollegeinNorthfield, Minnesota,but transferred after a year to theUniversity of South DakotainVermillion.[3]He completed his bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1922,[4]and hisMaster of Arts(M.A.) degree in physics from theUniversity of Minnesotain 1923 under the supervision ofWilliam Francis Gray Swann.For his master's thesis, Lawrence built an experimental apparatus that rotated anellipsoidthrough amagnetic field.[5][6][7]

Lawrence followed Swann to theUniversity of Chicago,and then toYale UniversityinNew Haven, Connecticut,where Lawrence completed hisDoctor of Philosophy(PhD) degree in physics in 1925 as a National Research Fellow,[8]writing his doctoral thesis on thephotoelectric effectin potassium vapor.[9][10]He was elected a member ofSigma Xi,and, on Swann's recommendation, received aNational Research Councilfellowship. Instead of using it to travel to Europe, as was customary at the time, he remained at Yale University with Swann as a researcher.[11]

WithJesse Beamsfrom theUniversity of Virginia,Lawrence continued to research the photoelectric effect. They showed that photoelectrons appeared within 2 x 10−9seconds of the photons striking the photoelectric surface—close to the limit of measurement at the time. Reducing the emission time by switching the light source on and off rapidly made the spectrum of energy emitted broader, in conformance withWerner Heisenberg'suncertainty principle.[12]

Early career[edit]

In 1926 and 1927, Lawrence received offers ofassistant professorshipsfrom theUniversity of WashingtoninSeattleand theUniversity of Californiaat a salary of $3,500 per annum (equivalent to $61,400 in 2023). Yale promptly matched the offer of the assistant professorship, but at a salary of $3,000. Lawrence chose to stay at the more prestigious Yale,[13]but because he had never been an instructor, the appointment was resented by some of his fellow faculty, and in the eyes of many it still did not compensate for his South Dakota immigrant background.[14]

Lawrence was hired as anassociate professorof physics at the University of California in 1928. He became a full professor two years later, becoming the university's youngest professor.[8]Based onFrédéricandIrène Joliot-Curie's 1934 published work onartificial radioactivity,Lawrence discovered thenitrogen-13isotope by firing high-energy protons into acarbon-13element in his laboratory.[15]He and his team includingMartin KamenandSamuel Rubenaccidentally discovered thecarbon-14isotope by bombardinggraphitewith high-energy protons.[16]Robert Gordon Sproul,who became university president the day after Lawrence became a professor,[17]was a member of theBohemian Club,and he sponsored Lawrence's membership in 1932. Through this club, Lawrence metWilliam Henry Crocker,Edwin Pauley,andJohn Francis Neylan.They were influential men who helped him obtain money for his energetic nuclear particle investigations. There was great hope for medical uses to come from the development of particle physics, and this led to much of the early funding that Lawrence was able to obtain for research.[18]

While at Yale, Lawrence met Mary Kimberly (Molly) Blumer, the eldest of four daughters of George Blumer, the dean of theYale School of Medicine.[19][20]They first met in 1926 and became engaged in 1931,[21]and were married on May 14, 1932, atTrinity Church on the GreeninNew Haven, Connecticut.[22]They had six children: Eric, Margaret, Mary, Robert, Barbara, and Susan.[19][23]Lawrence named his son Robert aftertheoretical physicistRobert Oppenheimer,his closest friend in Berkeley.[24][25][26]In 1941, Molly's sister Elsie marriedEdwin McMillan,[21]who would go on to win theNobel Prize in Chemistryin 1951 withGlenn T. Seaborg.[27]

Development of the cyclotron[edit]

Invention[edit]

The invention that brought Lawrence to international fame started out as a sketch on a scrap of a paper napkin. While sitting in the library one evening in 1929, Lawrence glanced over a journal article byRolf Widerøe,[28]and was intrigued by one of the diagrams.[29]This depicted a device that producedhigh-energy particlesby means of a succession of small "pushes". The device depicted was laid out in a straight line using increasingly longer electrodes.[30]At the time, physicists were beginning to explore theatomic nucleus.In 1919, the New Zealand physicistErnest Rutherfordhad fired alpha particles intonitrogenand had succeeded in knockingprotonsout of some of the nuclei. But nuclei have a positive charge that repels other positively charged nuclei, and they are bound together tightly by a force that physicists were only just beginning to understand. To break them up, to disintegrate them, would require much higher energies, of the order of millions of volts.[31]

Strange-looking schematic diagaram
Diagram of cyclotron operation from Lawrence's 1934 patent

Lawrence saw that such aparticle acceleratorwould soon become too long and unwieldy for his university laboratory. In pondering a way to make the accelerator more compact, Lawrence decided to set a circular accelerating chamber between the poles of an electromagnet. The magnetic field would hold the charged protons in a spiral path as they were accelerated between just two semicircular electrodes connected to an alternating potential. After a hundred turns or so, the protons would impact the target as a beam of high-energy particles. Lawrence excitedly told his colleagues that he had discovered a method for obtaining particles of very high energy without the use of any high voltage.[32]He initially worked with Niels Edlefsen. Their firstcyclotronwas made out of brass, wire, and sealing wax and was only four inches (10 cm) in diameter—it could be held in one hand, and probably cost a total of $25 (equivalent to $600 in 2023).[23][33]

What Lawrence needed to develop the idea was capable graduate students to do the work. Edlefsen left to take up an assistant professorship in September 1930, and Lawrence replaced him with David H. Sloan andM. Stanley Livingston,[26]whom he set to work on developing Widerøe's accelerator and Edlefsen's cyclotron, respectively. Both had their own financial support. Both designs proved practical, and by May 1931, Sloan'slinear acceleratorwas able to accelerate ions to 1 MeV.[34]Livingston had a greater technical challenge, but when he applied 1,800 V to his 11-inch cyclotron on January 2, 1931, he got 80,000-electron voltprotons spinning around. A week later, he had 1.22 MeV with 3,000 V, more than enough for his PhD thesis on its construction.[35]

Development[edit]

Six men in suits sitting on chairs, smiling and laughing
Meeting at Berkeley in 1940 concerning the planned 184-inch (4.67 m)cyclotron(seen on the blackboard): Lawrence,Arthur Compton,Vannevar Bush,James B. Conant,Karl T. Compton,andAlfred Lee Loomis

In what would become a recurring pattern, as soon as there was the first sign of success, Lawrence started planning a new, bigger machine. Lawrence and Livingston drew up a design for a 27-inch (69 cm) cyclotron in early 1932. The magnet for the $800 11-inch cyclotron weighed 2 tons, but Lawrence found a massive 80-ton magnet rusting in a junkyard in Palo Alto for the 27-inch that had originally been built during World War I to power a transatlantic radio link.[36][37]In the cyclotron, he had a powerful scientific instrument, but this did not translate into scientific discovery. In April 1932,John CockcroftandErnest Waltonat theCavendish Laboratoryin England announced that they had bombardedlithiumwithprotonsand succeeded in transmuting it intohelium.The energy required turned out to be quite low—well within the capability of the 11-inch cyclotron. On learning about it, Lawrence sent a wire to Berkeley and asked for Cockcroft and Walton's results to be verified. It took the team until September to do so, mainly due to lack of adequate detection apparatus.[38]

Although important discoveries continued to elude Lawrence'sRadiation Laboratory,mainly due to its focus on the development of the cyclotron rather than its scientific use, through his increasingly larger machines, Lawrence was able to provide crucial equipment needed for experiments inhigh energy physics.Around this device, he built what became the world's foremost laboratory for the new field of nuclear physics research in the 1930s. He received apatentfor the cyclotron in 1934,[39]which he assigned to theResearch Corporation,[40]aprivate foundationthat funded much of Lawrence's early work.[41]

In February 1936,Harvard University's president,James B. Conant,made attractive offers to Lawrence and Oppenheimer.[42]The University of California's president,Robert Gordon Sproul,responded by improving conditions. The Radiation Laboratory became an official department of the University of California on July 1, 1936, with Lawrence formally appointed its director, with a full-time assistant director, and the university agreed to make $20,000 a year available for its research activities (equivalent to $350,000 in 2023).[43]Lawrence employed a simple business model: "He staffed his laboratory with graduate students and junior faculty of the physics department, with fresh Ph.D.s willing to work for anything, and with fellowship holders and wealthy guests able to serve for nothing."[44]

Reception[edit]

Using the new 27-inch cyclotron, the team at Berkeley discovered that every element that they bombarded with recently discovereddeuteriumemitted energy, and in the same range. They, therefore, postulated the existence of a new and hitherto unknown particle that was a possible source of limitless energy.[45]William LaurenceofThe New York Timesdescribed Lawrence as "a new miracle worker of science".[46]At Cockcroft's invitation, Lawrence attended the 1933Solvay Conferencein Belgium. This was a regular gathering of the world's top physicists. Nearly all were from Europe, but occasionally an outstanding American scientist likeRobert A. MillikanorArthur Comptonwould be invited to attend. Lawrence was asked to give a presentation on the cyclotron.[47]Lawrence's claims of limitless energy met a very different reception in Solvay. He ran into withering skepticism from the Cavendish Laboratory'sJames Chadwick,the physicist who had discovered theneutronin 1932, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1935. In a British accent that sounded condescending to Lawrence's ears, Chadwick suggested that what Lawrence's team was observing was contamination of their apparatus.[48]

Six men in suits and ties stand in front of gigantic machinery. Two more are sitting on top of it.
The 60-inch (1.52 m) cyclotron soon after completion in 1939. The key figures in its development and use are shown, standing, left to right:Donald Cooksey,Dale R. Corson,Ernest Lawrence,Robert L. Thornton,John Backus,andWinfield Salisbury.In the background areLuis AlvarezandEdwin McMillan.

When he returned to Berkeley, Lawrence mobilized his team to go painstakingly over the results to gather enough evidence to convince Chadwick. Meanwhile, at the Cavendish laboratory, Rutherford andMark Oliphantfound that deuteriumfusesto formhelium-3,which causes the effect that the cyclotroneers had observed. Not only was Chadwick correct in that they had been observing contamination, but they had overlooked yet another important discovery, that of nuclear fusion.[49]Lawrence's response was to press on with the creation of still larger cyclotrons. The 27-inch cyclotron was superseded by a 37-inch cyclotron in June 1937,[50]which in turn was superseded by a 60-inch cyclotron in May 1939. It was used to bombard iron and produced its first radioactive isotopes in June.[51]

As it was easier to raise money for medical purposes, particularly cancer treatment, than for nuclear physics, Lawrence encouraged the use of the cyclotron for medical research. Working with his brother John and Israel Lyon Chaikoff from the University of California's physiology department, Lawrence supported research into the use of radioactive isotopes for therapeutic purposes.Phosphorus-32was easily produced in the cyclotron, and John used it to cure a woman afflicted withpolycythemia vera,a blood disease. John used phosphorus-32 created in the 37-inch cyclotron in 1938 in tests on mice withleukemia.He found that the radioactive phosphorus concentrated in the fast-growing cancer cells. This then led to clinical trials on human patients. A 1948 evaluation of the therapy showed that remissions occurred under certain circumstances.[52]Lawrence also had hoped for the medical use of neutrons. The first cancer patient receivedneutron therapyfrom the 60-inch cyclotron on November 20.[51]Chaikoff conducted trials on the use of radioactive isotopes asradioactive tracersto explore the mechanism of biochemical reactions.[53]

University of California Radiation Laboratory staff framed by the magnet for the 60-inch cyclotron, 1938; Nobel prize winners Ernest Lawrence,Edwin McMillan,andLuis Alvarezare shown, in addition toJ. Robert OppenheimerandRobert R. Wilson.

Lawrence was awarded theNobel Prize in Physicsin November 1939 "for the invention and development of the cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements".[54]He was the first at Berkeley as well as the first South Dakotan to become a Nobel Laureate, and the first to be so honored while at a state-supported university. The Nobel award ceremony was held on February 29, 1940, inBerkeley, California,due toWorld War II,in the auditorium ofWheeler Hallon the campus of the university. Lawrence received his medal from Carl E. Wallerstedt,Sweden'sConsul GeneralinSan Francisco.[55]Robert W. Woodwrote to Lawrence and presciently noted "As you are laying the foundations for the cataclysmic explosion of uranium... I'm sure old Nobel would approve."[56]

In March 1940,Arthur Compton,Vannevar Bush,James B. Conant,Karl T. Compton,andAlfred Lee Loomistraveled to Berkeley to discuss Lawrence's proposal for a 184-inch cyclotron with a 4,500-ton magnet that was estimated to cost $2.65 million (equivalent to $45,000,000 in 2023). TheRockefeller Foundationprovided $1.15 million to get the project started.[57]

World War II and the Manhattan Project[edit]

Radiation Laboratory[edit]

After the outbreak ofWorld War IIin Europe, Lawrence became drawn into military projects. He helped recruit staff for theMIT Radiation Laboratory,where American physicists developed thecavity magnetroninvented byMark Oliphant's team in Britain. The name of the new laboratory was deliberately copied from Lawrence's laboratory in Berkeley for security reasons. He also became involved in recruiting staff for underwater sound laboratories to develop techniques for detecting German submarines. Meanwhile, work continued at Berkeley with cyclotrons. In December 1940,Glenn T. SeaborgandEmilio Segrèused the 60-inch (150 cm) cyclotron to bombarduranium-238withdeuteronsproducing a new element,neptunium-238,which decayed bybeta emissionto formplutonium-238.One of its isotopes,plutonium-239,could undergo nuclear fission, which provided another way to make anatomic bomb.[58][59][60]

Lawrence offered Segrè a job as a research assistant—a relatively lowly position for someone who had discovered an element—for US$300 a month for six months. However, when Lawrence learned that Segrè was legally trapped in California, he reduced Segrè's salary further to US$116 a month.[61]When the regents of the University of California wanted to terminate Segrè's employment owing to his foreign nationality, Lawrence managed to retain Segrè by hiring him as a part-time lecturer paid by the Rockefeller Foundation. Similar arrangements were made to retain his doctoral studentsChien-Shiung Wu(a Chinese national) andKenneth Ross MacKenzie(a Canadian national) when they graduated.[62]

Another weird diagram. This one shows atoms being deflected by a magnet
Schematic diagram of uranium isotope separation in acalutron

In September 1941, Oliphant met with Lawrence and Oppenheimer at Berkeley, where they showed him the site for the new 184-inch (4.7 m) cyclotron. Oliphant, in turn, took the Americans to task for not following up the recommendations of the BritishMAUD Committee,which advocated a program to develop anatomic bomb.[63]Lawrence had already thought about the problem of separating the fissile isotopeuranium-235fromuranium-238,a process known today asuranium enrichment.Separating uranium isotopes was difficult because the two isotopes have very nearly identical chemical properties, and could only be separated gradually using their small mass differences. Separating isotopes with amass spectrometerwas a technique Oliphant had pioneered withlithiumin 1934.[64]

Lawrence began converting his old 37-inch cyclotron into a giant mass spectrometer.[65]On his recommendation, the director of theManhattan Project,Brigadier GeneralLeslie R. Groves Jr.,appointed Oppenheimer as head of itsLos Alamos LaboratoryinNew Mexico.While the Radiation laboratory developed the electromagnetic uranium enrichment process, the Los Alamos Laboratory designed and constructed the atomic bombs. Like the Radiation Laboratory, it was run by the University of California.[66]

Electromagnetic isotope separation used devices known ascalutrons,a hybrid of two laboratory instruments, the mass spectrometer and cyclotron. The name was derived from "California university cyclotrons".[67]In November 1943, Lawrence's team at Berkeley was bolstered by 29 British scientists, including Oliphant.[68][69]

In the electromagnetic process, a magnetic field deflected charged particles according to mass.[70]The process was neither scientifically elegant nor industrially efficient.[71]Compared with agaseous diffusionplant or anuclear reactor,an electromagnetic separation plant would consume more scarce materials, require more manpower to operate, and cost more to build. Nonetheless, the process was approved because it was based on proven technology and therefore represented less risk. Moreover, it could be built in stages, and would rapidly reach industrial capacity.[67]

Oak Ridge[edit]

Responsibility for the design and construction of the electromagnetic separation plant atOak Ridge, Tennessee,which came to be calledY-12,was assigned toStone & Webster.The calutrons, using 14,700 tons of silver, were manufactured byAllis-Chalmersin Milwaukee and shipped to Oak Ridge. The design called for five first-stage processing units, known as Alpha racetracks, and two units for final processing, known as Beta racetracks. In September 1943 Groves authorized construction of four more racetracks, known as Alpha II.[72]When the plant was started up for testing on schedule in October 1943, the 14-ton vacuum tanks crept out of alignment because of the power of the magnets and had to be fastened more securely. A more serious problem arose when the magnetic coils started shorting out. In December Groves ordered a magnet to be broken open, and handfuls of rust were found inside. Groves then ordered the racetracks to be torn down and the magnets sent back to the factory to be cleaned. Apicklingplant was established on-site to clean the pipes and fittings.[71]

A large oval-shaped structure.
Giant electromagnet Alpha I racetrack for uranium enrichment at Y-12 plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, circa 1944–45. ThecalutronsLawrence developed are located around the ring.

Tennessee Eastmanwas hired to manage Y-12.[73]Y-12 initially enriched the uranium-235 content to between 13% and 15%, and shipped the first few hundred grams of it to Los Alamos laboratory in March 1944.[74]Only 1 part in 5,825 of the uranium feed emerged as final product. The rest was splattered over equipment in the process. Strenuous recovery efforts helped raise production to 10% of the uranium-235 feed by January 1945. In February the Alpha racetracks began receiving slightly enriched (1.4%) feed from the newS-50 thermal diffusion plant.The next month it received enhanced (5%) feed from theK-25gaseous diffusion plant. By April 1945 K-25 was producing uranium sufficiently enriched to feed directly into the Beta tracks.[74]

On July 16, 1945, Lawrence observed theTrinity nuclear testof the first atomic bomb with Chadwick andCharles A. Thomas.Few were more excited at its success than Lawrence.[75]The question of how to use the now functional weapon on Japan became an issue for the scientists. While Oppenheimer favored no demonstration of the power of the new weapon to Japanese leaders, Lawrence felt strongly that a demonstration would be wise. When a uranium bomb was used without warning in theatomic bombing of Hiroshima,Lawrence felt great pride in his accomplishment.[76]

Lawrence hoped that the Manhattan Project would develop improved calutrons and construct Alpha III racetracks, but they were judged to be uneconomical.[77]The Alpha tracks were closed down in September 1945. Although performing better than ever,[78]they could not compete with K-25 and the new K-27, which commenced operation in January 1946. In December, the Y-12 plant was closed, thereby cutting the Tennessee Eastman payroll from 8,600 to 1,500 and saving $2 million a month.[79]Staff numbers at the Radiation laboratory fell from 1,086 in May 1945 to 424 by the end of the year.[80]

Post-war career[edit]

Big Science[edit]

After the war, Lawrence campaigned extensively for government sponsorship of large scientific programs. He was a forceful advocate of Big Science with its requirements for big machines and big money, and in 1946 he asked the Manhattan Project for over $2 million for research at the Radiation Laboratory (equivalent to $24,000,000 in 2023). Groves approved the money, but cut a number of programs, including Seaborg's proposal for a "hot" radiation laboratory in densely populated Berkeley, and John Lawrence's for production of medical isotopes, because this need could now be better met from nuclear reactors. One obstacle was the University of California, which was eager to divest its wartime military obligations. Lawrence and Groves managed to persuade Sproul to accept a contract extension.[81]In 1946, the Manhattan Project spent $7 on physics at the University of California for every dollar spent by the university.[82]

To most of his colleagues, Lawrence appeared to have almost an aversion to mathematical thought. He had a most unusual intuitive approach to involved physical problems, and when explaining new ideas to him, one quickly learned not to befog the issue by writing down the differential equation that might appear to clarify the situation. Lawrence would say something to the effect that he didn't want to be bothered by the mathematical details, but "explain the physics of the problem to me." One could live close to him for years, and think of him as being almost mathematically illiterate, but then be brought up sharply to see how completely he retained his skill in the mathematics of classical electricity and magnetism.

Luis Alvarez[83]

The 184-inch cyclotron was completed with wartime dollars from the Manhattan Project. It incorporated new ideas by Ed McMillan, and was completed as asynchrocyclotron.[84]It commenced operation on November 13, 1946.[85]For the first time since 1935, Lawrence actively participated in the experiments, working withEugene Gardnerin an unsuccessful attempt to create recently discoveredpi mesonswith the synchrotron.César Lattesthen used the apparatus they had created to find negative pi mesons in 1948.[86]

Responsibility for thenational laboratoriespassed to the newly createdAtomic Energy Commission(AEC) on January 1, 1947.[87]That year, Lawrence asked for $15 million for his projects (equivalent to $161,000,000 in 2023), which included a new linear accelerator and a new gigaelectronvolt synchrotron which became known as thebevatron.The University of California's contract to run the Los Alamos laboratory was due to expire on July 1, 1948, and some board members wished to divest the university of the responsibility for running a site outside California. After some negotiation, the university agreed to extend the contract for what was now the Los Alamos National Laboratory for four more years and to appointNorris Bradbury,who had replaced Oppenheimer as its director in October 1945, as a professor. Soon after, Lawrence received all the funds he had requested.[88]

Lawrence (right) withRobert Oppenheimerat the 184-inch cyclotron, circa 1946

Notwithstanding the fact that he voted forFranklin Roosevelt,Lawrence was aRepublican,[89]who had strongly disapproved of Oppenheimer's efforts before the war to unionize the Radiation Laboratory workers, which Lawrence considered "leftwandering activities".[90]Lawrence considered political activity to be a waste of time better spent in scientific research, and preferred that it be kept out of the Radiation Laboratory.[91] In the chillyCold Warclimate of the post-war University of California, Lawrence accepted theHouse Un-American Activities Committee's actions as legitimate, and did not see them as indicative of a systemic problem involvingacademic freedomorhuman rights.He was protective of individuals in his laboratory, but even more protective of the reputation of the laboratory.[91]He was forced to defend Radiation Laboratory staff members likeRobert Serberwho were investigated by the university's Personnel Security Board. In several cases, he issued character references in support of staff. However, Lawrence barred Robert Oppenheimer's brotherFrankfrom the Radiation Laboratory, damaging his relationship with Robert.[92]An acrimonious loyalty oath campaign at the University of California also drove away faculty members.[93]When hearings were held to revoke Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance, Lawrence declined to attend on account of illness, but a transcript in which he was critical of Oppenheimer was presented in his absence. Lawrence's success in building a creative, collaborative laboratory was undermined by the ill-feeling and distrust resulting from political tensions.[91]

Thermonuclear weapons[edit]

Lawrence was alarmed by theSoviet Union'sfirst nuclear testin August 1949. The proper response, he concluded, was an all-out effort to build a bigger nuclear weapon: thehydrogen bomb.[94]He proposed to use accelerators instead of nuclear reactors to produce the neutrons needed to create thetritiumthe bomb required, as well as plutonium, which was more difficult, as much higher energies would be required.[95]He first proposed the construction of Mark I, a prototype $7 million, 25 MeVlinear accelerator,codenamed Materials Test Accelerator (MTA).[95][96]He was soon talking about a new, even larger MTA known as the Mark II, which could producetritiumorplutoniumfrom depleted uranium-238. Serber and Segrè attempted in vain to explain the technical problems that made it impractical, but Lawrence felt that they were being unpatriotic.[97][98]

Lawrence strongly backedEdward Teller's campaign for a second nuclear weapons laboratory, which Lawrence proposed to locate with the MTA Mark I atLivermore, California.Lawrence and Teller had to argue their case not only with the Atomic Energy Commission, which did not want it, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was implacably opposed but with proponents who felt that Chicago was the more obvious site for it.[99]The new laboratory at Livermore was finally approved on July 17, 1952, but the Mark II MTA was canceled. By this time, the Atomic Energy Commission had spent $45 million on the Mark I, which had commenced operation, but was mainly used to producepoloniumfor the nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, theBrookhaven National Laboratory'sCosmotronhad generated a 1 GeV beam.[100]

Death and legacy[edit]

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Lawrence received theElliott Cresson Medaland theHughes Medalin 1937, theComstock Prize in Physicsin 1938, theDuddell Medal and Prizein 1940, theHolley Medalin 1942, theMedal for Meritin 1946, theWilliam Procter Prizein 1951,Faraday Medalin 1952,[101]and theEnrico Fermi Awardfrom the Atomic Energy Commission in 1957.[102]He was elected a member of the United StatesNational Academy of Sciencesin 1934,[103]and both theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesand theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1937.[104][105]He was made anOfficer of the Legion d'Honneurin 1948,[101]and was the first recipient of theSylvanus Thayer Awardby theUS Military Academyin 1958.[106]

In July 1958, PresidentDwight D. Eisenhowerasked Lawrence to travel toGeneva, Switzerland,to help negotiate a proposedPartial Nuclear Test Ban Treatywith theSoviet Union.AEC ChairmanLewis Strausshad pressed for Lawrence's inclusion. The two men had argued the case for the development of the hydrogen bomb, and Strauss had helped raise funds for Lawrence's cyclotron in 1939. Strauss was keen to have Lawrence as part of the Geneva delegation because Lawrence was known to favor continued nuclear testing.[107]Despite suffering from a serious flare-up of his chroniculcerative colitis,Lawrence decided to go, but he became ill while in Geneva, and was rushed back to thehospitalatStanford University.[108]Surgeonsremoved much of his large intestine,but found other problems, including severeatherosclerosisin one of his arteries.[109]He died inPalo Alto Hospitalon August 27, 1958,[6][110]nineteen days after his 57th birthday.[111]Molly did not want a public funeral but agreed to a memorial service at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. University of California PresidentClark Kerrdelivered theeulogy.[109]

Almost immediately after Lawrence's death, theRegents of the University of Californiavoted to rename two of the university's nuclear research labs after Lawrence: theLawrence Livermore National Laboratoryand theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[112]TheErnest Orlando Lawrence Awardwas established in his memory in 1959.[113]Chemical element number 103, discovered at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1961, was namedlawrenciumafter him.[114]In 1968 theLawrence Hall of Sciencepublic science education center was established in his honor.[115]His papers are in theBancroft Libraryat the University of California, Berkeley.[116]

In the 1980s, Lawrence's widow petitioned the University of California Board of Regents on several occasions to remove her husband's name from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, due to its focus on nuclear weapons Lawrence helped build, but was denied each time.[117][118][119][120]She outlived her husband by more than 44 years and died inWalnut Creek, California,at the age of 92 on January 6, 2003.[19][20]

George B. Kauffmanwrote that:

Before him, "little science" was carried out largely by lone individuals working with modest means on a small scale. After him, massive industrial, and especially governmental, expenditures of manpower and monetary funding made "big science," carried out by large-scale research teams, a major segment of the national economy.[121]

Lawrence is portrayed byJosh HartnettinChristopher Nolan's 2023 filmOppenheimer.[122]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^"Nobel Prize laureates by age".NobelPrize.org.RetrievedMay 8,2024.
  2. ^Childs 1968,pp. 23–30, 476–477.
  3. ^Childs 1968,pp. 47–49.
  4. ^Childs 1968,p. 61.
  5. ^Childs 1968,pp. 63–68.
  6. ^ab"Inventor of cyclotron dies after surgery".Eugene Register-Guard.(Oregon). Associated Press. August 28, 1958. p. 5B.RetrievedMay 24,2015.
  7. ^Berdahl, Robert M.(December 10, 2001)."The Lawrence Legacy".Vermillion, South Dakota: University of California, Berkeley. Office of the Chancellor.RetrievedMay 9,2014.
  8. ^abAlvarez 1970,pp. 253–254.
  9. ^Alvarez 1970,p. 288.
  10. ^Lawrence, Ernest Orlando (August 1925). "The photoelectric effect in potassium vapour as a function of the frequency of the light".Philosophical Magazine.50(296): 345–359.Bibcode:1925PhDT.........1L.doi:10.1080/14786442508634745.
  11. ^Childs 1968,p. 93.
  12. ^Alvarez 1970,p. 256.
  13. ^Childs 1968,pp. 107–108.
  14. ^Childs 1968,pp. 120–121.
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Bibliography[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Bird, Kai, and Martin J. Sherwin.American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer(2005)online
  • Bernstein, Barton J. "Four Physicists and the Bomb: The Early Years, 1945-1950"Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences(1988) 18#2; covers Oppenheimer, Fermi, Lawrence and Compton.online
  • Galison, Peter, and Barton Bernstein. "In any light: Scientists and the decision to build the Superbomb, 1952-1954."Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences19.2 (1989): 267–347.online
  • Hiltzik, Michael.Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex(Simon and Schuster, 2015)online

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toErnest O. Lawrence.
Awards
Preceded by
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 Sylvanus Thayer Award
1958 		Succeeded by
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