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Leona Woods And Enrico Fermi On The Manhattan Project

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Leona Woods Marshall Libby was an American physicist that’s most famous for her work alongside Enrico Fermi on the Manhattan Project to create the first atomic reactor. Leona Woods was born in 1919 in La Grange, Illinois. In 1938, Leona graduated from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry at the age of 19. Leona was only 23 years old and in the book by Sanger, she was “the only women present when Enrico Fermi’s nuclear pile at the University of Chicago went critical and into the history books” (Sanger). Leona was one of the few females on the project and at this time it was probably very difficult for a woman to get accepted the way she did. Later in life Leona worked on astrophysics, cosmology, and environmental …show more content…

In 1942, Leona Woods joined the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago at only 23. This made Leona the youngest of Professor Mulliken’s PH.D students. The United States led this project during World War II to build the first nuclear weapon. While much of this project was classified and not published we were able to find some information about what was done during this time by great scientist. She was the only female in her group, one of the very few females to be a part of this project, and probably one of the most famous. While being very hands on in the project and taking on huge responsibilities Leona never got to lead a part of the project. Could this have been her own choice or was this because it would have been hard at this time for a female to lead male scientist? Nevertheless, Leona was an important part for the creation of the Chicago Pile-1 which was the world’s first nuclear reactor. She helped to calibrate the machine so that they could measure the reactor. In 1943, Leona and John Marshall, a fellow scientist married. Shortly after their marriage she became pregnant. A woman that was pregnant was not supposed to be working where she was and could be forced to leave. Her and Enrico became very close and she trusted him with this secret and she began to come to work in baggy clothes to hide it to others so she could continue her work. This was unusal for her as in pictures prior we see Leona as a well-dressed female in her blazers and skirts. Leona was very dedicated to her work and wanted to be there as much as possible. However due to some complications, Leona decided to go to the hospital a couple days before the due date. She was experiencing high blood pressure and she turned out to have the child there. Leona could not stay away from her work and returned after only a week. This only proves how hard of a worker she was and probably why she was able to accomplish so much during

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