Heritage Lecture
Imagine what it would be like to be part of history not once or twice, but three times. Lawrence Johnston knows how this feels.
Johnston, the only person to witness the first three nuclear detonations in the world, will discuss his wartime experiences as a Los Alamos staff member at a Heritage Lecture today at the Laboratory. The talk, “Adventures at Wartime Los Alamos,” is scheduled to begin at 1:10 this afternoon in the Physics Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3 and is open to the work force.
Physicist Luis Alvarez brought Johnston to Los Alamos in the 1940s to develop the firing system for Fat Man. Johnston witnessed the Trinity test in southern New Mexico on July 16, 1945 and flew on the combat missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki three weeks later.
Johnston will discuss living on the hill and life in wartime Los Alamos, his work on the implosion bomb, and the three nuclear detonations.
Johnston was born in China in 1918. In addition to his work at Los Alamos, Johnston worked in the MIT Radiation Laboratory, in the Department of Physics at the University of Minnesota, and at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Johnston was a professor at the University of Idaho from 1967 until he retired in 1988.
Johnston's talk is part of the Laboratory's Heritage Lecture Series. This talk is funded by the Director's Office.
For more information, contact Roger Meade of Records Management, Media Services and Operations (IRM-RMMSO) at 7-3809 or rzxm@lanl.gov by electronic mail.
