Lyman James Briggs

Lyman James Briggs (May 7, 1874 – March 25, 1963) was an American engineer, physicist and administrator. He was a director of the National Bureau of Standards during the Great Depression and chairman of the Uranium Committee before America entered the Second World War. The Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University is named in his honor.

Briggs was born on a farm in Assyria, Michigan, near Battle Creek, Michigan. He was the eldest of two brothers in a family that descended from Clement Briggs, who arrived in America in 1621 on the Fortune, the first ship to follow the Mayflower. He grew up in an outdoor life with duties to attend such as would be found on an active farm in the late 19th century. He went to the Briggs School built by his grandfather and later was a teacher there.

Briggs entered Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State University) in East Lansing, Michigan, entering by examination at age 15. Michigan State was a Land Grant college, so courses were taught in agriculture and mechanical arts. He majored in agriculture, but by graduation time in 1893 his interests had moved on to mechanical engineering and physics. He next entered the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, completing a master's degree in physics in 1895. From there he entered Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and began work on his PhD.

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