Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Lee A. DuBridge (1901-1994) was an American physicist and administrator and the founding director of the Radiation Laboratory at MIT.

DuBridge was born on September 21, 1901 in Terre Haute, Indiana. After receiving a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1926, DuBridge taught physics at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of Rochester. At the urging of Ernest O. Lawrence, he supervised the construction of a cyclotron at Rochester that generated (at that time) the world’s highest energy proton beam.

In 1940, DuBridge was appointed director of the Radiation Laboratory at MIT. During World War II the “Rad Lab,” as it was commonly known, advanced and accelerated radar development. Under DuBridge’s leadership, the Rad Lab became the largest war research laboratory, with an annual budget of $13 million, more than 4,000 staff, and industrial contracts worth $1.5 billion. While not officially part of the Manhattan Project, DuBridge was asked by J. Robert Oppenheimer to troubleshoot issues at Los Alamos because of his experience with the Rad Lab.

After the war, he was named President of Caltech, a position he held for 23 years. DuBridge also served as a member of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission’s General Advisory Committee and was a scientific advisor to Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Nixon. During the McCarthy era, he championed academic freedom, refusing to fire Nobel Prize-winning Caltech professor Linus Pauling over his opposition to nuclear testing.

For his achievements as a scientist and administrator, DuBridge received the Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Foundation in 1982. He died of pneumonia in Duarte, California on January 23, 1994.

 

Lee A. DuBridge's Timeline
1901 Sep 21st Born in Terre Haute, Indiana.
1922 Received a B.A. from Cornell College.
1924 Received an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1926 Received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1936 Supervised construction of a cyclotron at the University of Rochester.
19401945 Directed the Radiation Laboratory at MIT.
19461969 Served as President of Caltech.
19471952 Member of the General Advisory Committee of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
1994 Jan 23rd Died in Duarte, California.

Related Profiles

Cyril Smith

Los Alamos, NM

Cyril Smith (1903-1992) was a British metallurgist. He was married to the historian Alice Kimball Smith.

Herbert August Potratz

Chicago, IL

Herbert Potratz was an American chemist. Potratz was born in 1902 in Iowa. He received a B.S., an M.S.

Albert Wattenberg

Chicago, IL

Albert “Al” Wattenberg was an American physicist. Wattenberg was born on April 13, 1917, in New York City.

Max Roy

Los Alamos, NM

Max Roy was an American chemist. Roy received his undergraduate degree and his Master’s degree at Rice University.