Young Norris Bradbury, 1925
Bradbury, age 16, on motorbike. Norris Edwin Bradbury (May 30, 1909 - August 20, 1997), was an American physicist who served as Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 25 years from 1945-70. Oppenheimer personally chose Bradbury for the position of director after working closely with him on the Manhattan Project. He took charge at Los Alamos at a difficult time. Staff were leaving in droves and living conditions were poor. He persuaded enough staff to stay, and got the University of California to renew the contract to manage the laboratory. He continued development of nuclear weapons, transforming them from laboratory devices to production models that were safer, more reliable and easier to store and handle. In the 1950s he oversaw the development of thermonuclear weapons and constructed the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility to develop the lab's role in nuclear science. During the Space Race of the 1960s, LANL developed the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA). In the mid-90s, he accidentally hit his leg while chopping firewood. Gangrene set in, and his right leg was amputated below the knee. It spread to his left leg, and part of his left foot was amputated. The disease eventually proved fatal, and he died in 1997 at the age of 88. The Bradbury Science Museum is named in his honor
