Professor Victor Weisskopf (1908-2002)

Professor Victor Weisskopf, a member of the Manhattan Project and active US Pugwash member, died in Newton, Massachusetts on April 21, 2002 at the age of 93.

Professor Weisskopf was born in Vienna, Austria in 1908. He received a PhD in physics at the University of Gottingen in Austria and fled to the United States during World War II.

In 1942, J. Robert Oppenheimer asked him to join the Manhattan Project, the top-secret program to develop an atomic bomb. He had mixed feelings about joining the team, reasoning that "first, this is an abuse of science for mass destruction. [But] Second, Hitler gets the bomb first, he would dominate the world." After three years of work on the project, Weisskopf was among the small group of project members who witnessed the first atomic blast on July 16, 1945. The experience deeply affected him and he vowed never again to do weapons research. He helped found the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and became an internationally recognized advocate of arms control.

After World War II, Weisskopf accepted a position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he taught until his passing. He held several renowned positions, including director general of the European Center for Nuclear Research, President of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and member of the Pontifical Academy of Science.