Obituary of Alvin Weinberg

Alvin Weinberg, a former Oak Ridge National Laboratory director died Wednesday 18 October 2006. Weinberg helped develop the world’s first nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project. He moved to Oak Ridge in 1945 to help produce the material for the first atomic bombs.

Weinberg was born in Chicago to Russian emigrants and educated at the University of Chicago. He co-authored the standard text on nuclear chain reaction theory with Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner in the 1940s. Weinberg became director of Oak Ridge in 1955 and remained in the position until 1973. Weinberg proposed the formation of the American Nuclear Society, and was a early proponent of pressurized-water reactors.

In 1961, Weinberg chaired President Kennedy’s Panel of Science Information, which produced the landmark “Weinberg Report” on the communication of science to technical and lay audiences.

In 1975, Weinberg founded and became director of the Institute for Energy Analysis at Oak Ridge Associated Universities. He retired in 1985 but remained closely connected to both the Institute and the laboratory.