caption death_date death_place birth_place birth_date image article_title name alma_mater
john manley 11 june 1990 los alamos , new mexico harvard , illinois 21 july 1907 john manley -lrb- physicist -rrb- . jpg john henry manley
 john henry manley university of michigan
john henry manley

john henry manley -lrb- july 21 , 1907 -- june 11 , 1990 -rrb- was an american physicist who worked with j. robert oppenheimer at the university of california , berkeley before becoming a group leader during the manhattan project .
he was born in 1907 in harvard , illinois .
he graduated with a bs from the university of illinois in 1929 and received his phd in physics from the university of michigan 1934 .
he was a lecturer columbia university and later professor at the university of illinois from 1937 to 1942 .
he married kathleen , and had two daughters : kim manley of los alamos , new mexico ; and kathleen manley of greeley , colorado by the time world war ii broke out , manley was at the university of chicago 's metallurgical laboratory .
in 1942 , his friend and colleague , j. robert oppenheimer , held a meeting with several leading theorists at uc berkeley .
the topic of the meeting : develop preliminary plans to design and build a nuclear weapon .
manley , one the attendees , was tasked with learning more about the properties of fast neutrons .
less than a year later , the center of the project had shifted to the los alamos national laboratory .
on april 4 , 1943 , manley arrived at the laboratory .
manley spent his first days in los alamos working with other newcomers on the construction of laboratory buildings .
he also installed a cockcroft -- walton generator , which he had brought with him from urbana .
throughout the war manley served as one of oppenheimer 's principal aides , with particular responsibility for laboratory management .
after the war , manley left los alamos to serve as executive secretary of the general advisory committee for the atomic energy commission , a federal agency charged with managing the nation 's atomic assets .
after leaving the aec , he returned the los alamos as assistant director for research .
from 1951 to 1957 , manley taught physics at the university of washington .
he retired in 1974 , and died in 1990 in los alamos at age 82 .
