"From Army Private to Atomic Physicist for the Manhattan Project"

Date: October 28th, 2015
Duration: 1h:6m:40s

The Fall 2015 Presidential Lecture Series:
"FROM ARMY PRIVATE TO ATOMIC PHYSICIST FOR THE MANHATTAN PROJECT”
A LECTURE BY
DR. BENJAMIN BEDERSON
U.S. Army Veteran
Experiential Atomic Physicist, the Manhattan Project
Professor Emeritus of the Department of Physics at New York University
Former Editor-in-Chief of the American Physical Society

The Manhattan Project was one of the most significant government projects in history. It was a research and development program that produced the first atomic bombs during WWII. It was led by the U.S. with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Almos National Laboratory who designed the actual bombs.

The story of how I became present at one of history’s turning points can be attributed to fortuitous career choices, extraordinary army assignments and many life-changing events that were beyond my control.

Throughout my life I have always felt a deep connection with New York City, it is where I grew up, where I was educated and earned the greater part of my living, and where I raised, together with my wonderful wife, our family of four sons.

BENJAMIN BEDERSON, a native New Yorker, grew up in the Bronx and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. He attended The City College of New York (CUNY) for two and one half years before leaving school to take a job at the Army Signal Corps as a civilian in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From there he was drafted in 1942.

Because he had no military experience he was sent to Radio School to become a tail gunner on a B-17. Shortly thereafter, he was selected to participate in a new Army program called the Army Specialized Training Program where he took a course in electrical engineering at Ohio State University.

By chance an interviewing board came to Ohio State and his commanding officer encouraged him to apply for something called the Manhattan Project. As a U.S. Army private in his early twenties, Bederson was one of the lowest ranking soldiers assigned to the project. He was chosen for his natural talents as a budding scientist and became part of the Special Engineering Detachment and transferred once again, this time to Los Alamos. There he worked on wiring the switches for the atomic bombs and tested the switches for the bomb that would eventually be dropped on Nagasaki.

After that fateful summer of 1945, Bederson continued his research as an experimental atomic physicist, working for many years as a professor at New York University teaching a course called Physics in Society. He also served as editor-in-chief of the American Physical Society and helped usher physics journals into the electronic age.