Charles Allen Thomas Charles Allen Thomas ( February 15 , 1900 – March 29 , 1982 ) was a noted American chemist and businessman , and an important figure in the Manhattan Project . Biography . Thomas was born on a farm in Scott County , Kentucky , the son of Charles Allen and Frances Carrick Thomas . He received his BA ( 1920 ) from Transylvania College , an MA ( 1924 ) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and an honorary D . Sc . ( 1933 ) from Transylvania College . He was first employed as a General Motors research chemist from 1923 to 1924 , helping to create the tetraethyllead long used in motor fuels , then left GM for Ethyl Corporation , a joint venture between GM and Esso to make and sell tetraethyllead gasoline additives , where he worked from 1924 to 1926 . In 1926 he co - founded Thomas & Hochwalt Laboratories in Dayton , Ohio with Dr . Carroll A . ( " Ted " ) Hochwalt , who had recruited him to GM , and he worked there until 1936 , when Monsanto Company acquired the company and made it into Monsanto ' s Central Research Department . He spent the rest of his career at Monsanto until his retirement in 1970 , during which time he served as President ( 1951 – 60 ) and Chairman of the Board ( 1960 – 65 ) . He was married to Margaret Talbott . In 1943 , Thomas was called to a meeting in Washington DC with Brig . Gen . Leslie Groves , commander of the Manhattan Project , and with James Conant , president of Harvard University and chairman of the National Defense Research Committee ( NDRC ) . They urged Thomas to become co - director at Los Alamos with Robert Oppenheimer , but Thomas was reluctant to leave Dayton and Monsanto . Thomas joined the NDRC , and Monsanto ' s Central Research Department began to conduct research for the Manhattan Project under contract from the US government . From 1943 to 1945 , he coordinated Manhattan Project work on plutonium purification and production and , as part of the Manhattan Project ' s Dayton Project ( conducted on the estate of his wife ' s family ) , also he coordinated development of techniques to industrially refine polonium for use with beryllium in the triggers of atomic weapons . In 1946 Dean Acheson appointed him to serve with Robert Oppenheimer , David Lilienthal , and others to appraise international atomic inspection , culminating in the Acheson – Lilienthal Report . In 1951 President Harry Truman appointed Thomas to an eleven - man committee of prominent scientists to advise on defense planning . In 1953 he was appointed as a consultant to the National Security Council , and also served as U . S . Representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission . Thomas was elected to the National Academy of Sciences at age forty - eight and was one of the founding members of the National Academy of Engineering . He was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In addition , he received over 100 patents , as well as the Medal for Merit from the U . S . President ( 1946 ) , the Industrial Research Institute ( IRI ) Medal ( 1947 ) , the American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal ( 1948 ) , the Missouri Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering ( 1952 ) , the Society of Chemical Industries Perkin Medal ( 1953 ) , the American Chemical Society Priestley Medal ( 1955 ) , the Order of Leopold ( Belgium ) ( 1962 ) , the Societe de Chimie Industrielle Palladium Medal ( 1963 ) , and the American Academy of Achievement Gold Plate Award ( 1965 ) , the St . Louis Globe - Democrat Man of the Year award ( 1966 ) . His papers are collected at Washington University in St . Louis .