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Compton became head of the fission chain reaction to produce plutonium and weapon theory programs. He approached the task with enthusiasm and began consolidating most fission research at his new Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab) at his home campus at the University of Chicago.
Arthur Compton (1892-1962) was an American physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. A top administrator and advisor during the Manhattan Project, Compton played a key role in the making of the atomic bomb.
Under his direction, the Met Lab assisted Hanford, Washington with the development of its plutonium reactors and Oak Ridge, Tennessee with its uranium enrichment facilities. Unlike his colleague Leo Szilard, Compton advocated for the use of atomic bombs against Japan in the summer of 1945.
During World War II, Compton was a key figure in the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear weapons. His reports were important in launching the project.
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
Fellow Nobel Prize winning physicist Arthur H. Compton was also a central Manhattan Project administrator through his service as head of the S1 Committee directing uranium enrichment activities and as head of the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory.
Arthur H. Compton's selection in January 1942 of the Chicago campus as the site for the Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab), the first facility specifically dedicated to building the atomic bomb, nonetheless made the University of Chicago perhaps the most important academic institution of the Manhattan Project.
