John archibald wheeler biography

John Archibald Wheeler (1911 – 2008) was an American physicist.

After receiving his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, Wheeler worked at Danish physicist Niels Bohr’s laboratory in Copenhagen before accepting a teaching position at Princeton University.

He joined the Manhattan Project in 1942, first at the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory and then with DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware.

John archibald wheeler biography

Wheeler was the leading physicist in residence at Hanford and is credited with solving the riddle of the B Reactor going dead a few hours after it started, an event that threatened to seriously delay the first production of plutonium.

Wheeler’s Manhattan Project work was motivated by his brother Joe, an American soldier fighting in Italy.

In 1944, Joe sent Wheeler a two-word postcard: “Hurry up.” Tragically, Joe was killed in battle in October of 1944. His death had a profound impact on Wheeler’s life and work.

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