George Weil
| George Leon Weil | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 18, 1907 New York City |
| Died | July 1, 1995 (aged 87) Washington, DC |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions |
Columbia University Metallurgical Laboratory Los Alamos Laboratory General Electric Atomic Energy Commission |
| Alma mater |
Harvard College Columbia University |
| Thesis | Beta-Ray Spectra of Arsenic, Rubidium and Krypton (1942) |
George Leon Weil (September 18, 1907 – July 1, 1995) was an American physicist. On December 2, 1942, he removed the control rod from the Chicago Pile-1 nuclear reactor, initiating the first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
George Leon Weil was born in New York City on September 18, 1907, the son of Leon and Elsie Rose Weil. He had an older sister, Helen. He entered Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1939 and then Columbia University, where he earned his master's degree, and later his doctorate, writing his 1942 doctoral thesis on Beta-Ray Spectra of Arsenic, Rubidium and Krypton. It was subsequently published in the Physical Review in September 1942.
At Columbia University, Weil became involved in Enrico Fermi's efforts to build a nuclear reactor. In December 1941, the Office of Scientific Research and Development assumed responsibility for this project, which was placed under the direction of Arthur Compton.
In early 1942, Compton concentrated the teams he was responsible for, at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. Fermi's group became primarily responsible for building a reactor, while Eugene Wigner's group was responsible for its design. In September 1942, the Metallurgical Laboratory became part of the Army Manhattan Project. Construction of the reactor, which became known as Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1), commenced in November 1942, under the West Stands of the University of Chicago's disused Stagg Field.
CP-1 was ready on December 2, 1942; Weil worked the final control rod, while Fermi monitored the neutron activity. The pile went critical at 15:36, initiating the first man-made, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Fermi shut it down 28 minutes later, by having the control rods re-inserted. Weil continued to work in reactor development and in April 1945, went to the Los Alamos laboratory, where he worked on the Trinity nuclear test. In October 1945, he was appointed the American representative at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada.
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