Leonard Moos Rieser (May 18, 1922 – December 15, 1998) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and later for nuclear disarmament. Rieser was a professor of physics and provost at Dartmouth College.
Leonard M. Rieser | |
|---|---|
| Born | Leonard Moos Rieser May 18, 1922 |
| Died | December 15, 1998 (aged 76) Lebanon, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Spouse |
Rosemary Littledale (m. 1944) |
| Children | 4 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Nuclear physics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Reflection of X-rays from evaporated metal films (1951) |
Biography
editRieser was born May 18, 1922, in Chicago.[1][2] He studied at Dartmouth College from 1940 to 1942 before transferring to the University of Chicago and graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics in 1943.[1] In 1942 he enlisted in the Army Signal Corps and after graduating from Chicago was assigned to work on the secret Manhattan Project, developing the atomic bomb.[3][1] Rieser first worked at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago, then at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico where he witnessed the first atomic explosion.[1][3] In 1944 he married Rosemary Littledale.[4][3]
Rieser left the army and Los Alamos in 1946 to begin postgraduate studies at Stanford University, graduating with a PhD in 1952. That year he began teaching physics at Dartmouth College, where he worked until his retirement in 1992. He became an associate professor in 1957, and a professor in 1960.[1] He held various administrative positions at the college, including provost and dean of the faculty.[1]
Rieser served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 1972 to 1975.[5][1] He was chair of the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists from 1985 to 1998.[6][7] The Bulletin's Leonard M. Rieser Award for Young Authors bears his name.[8] Starting in 1985, he was the keeper of the Bulletin's symbolic Doomsday Clock and moved its minute hand to indicate how close or far away we were from the threat of nuclear annihilation.[5]
Rieser died December 15, 1998, from pancreatic cancer at the Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, at the age of 76.[5][7]
Books
edit- Brown, Sanborn C.; Rieser, Leonard M. (1974). Natural Philosophy at Dartmouth: From Surveyors' Chains to the Pressure of Light. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England. ISBN 978-0-87451-102-4.
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g "Leonard M. Rieser 1922-1998". Dartmouth News (Press release). Dartmouth College. December 17, 1998. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
- ^ "Leonard M. Rieser". American Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on November 7, 2022. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
- ^ a b c Holton, Gerald (February 18, 1972). "Leonard M. Rieser, President-Elect, 1972". Science. 175 (4023): 796–797. Bibcode:1972Sci...175..796H. doi:10.1126/science.175.4023.796. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 4550686.
- ^ "Rosemary Littledale Rieser". Valley News. December 11, 2012. ISSN 1072-6179. Archived from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
- ^ a b c McSherry Breslin, Meg (December 19, 1998). "Leonard Rieser, Keeper of Doomsday Clock". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
- ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (December 19, 1998). "Leonard Rieser, 76, Opponent Of Arsenal He Helped Create". New York Times. pp. C16. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on August 12, 2023. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
- ^ a b Moore, Mike (March 1999). "Leonard M Rieser, 1922–1998". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 55 (2): 4–5. Bibcode:1999BuAtS..55b...4M. doi:10.1080/00963402.1999.11460305. ProQuest 197818892 – via ProQuest.
- ^ "The 2017 Leonard M. Rieser Award Winner". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. December 19, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
External links
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