Leonard M. Rieser | |
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| Born | Leonard Moos Rieser (1922-05-18)May 18, 1922 |
| Died | December 15, 1998(1998-12-15) (aged 76) Lebanon, New Hampshire, U.S. |
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| Children | 4 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Nuclear physics |
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| Thesis | Reflection of X-rays from evaporated metal films (1951) |
Leonard Moos Rieser (May 18, 1922 – December 15, 1998) was an American physicist who worked on theManhattan Project and later fornuclear disarmament. Rieser was a professor of physics and provost atDartmouth College.
Rieser was born May 18, 1922, inChicago.[1][2] He studied at Dartmouth College from 1940 to 1942 before transferring to theUniversity of Chicago and graduating with abachelor's degree in physics in 1943.[1] In 1942 he enlisted in theArmy Signal Corps and after graduating from Chicago was assigned to work on the secret Manhattan Project, developing theatomic bomb.[3][1] Rieser first worked at theMetallurgical Laboratory in Chicago, then atLos Alamos Laboratory inNew Mexico where he witnessed thefirst 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 atStanford 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 theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science from 1972 to 1975.[5][1] He was chair of the board of theBulletin 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 symbolicDoomsday Clock and moved its minute hand to indicate how close or far away we were from the threat ofnuclear annihilation.[5]
Rieser died December 15, 1998, frompancreatic cancer at theDartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center inLebanon, New Hampshire, at the age of 76.[5][7]
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