Herbert F. York (1921-2009) A Life of Firsts,an Ambassador for Peace

摘要

When Herbert Frank York, the Laboratory's first director, died on May 19,2009, he left behind on enduring legacy as a scientific innovator and diplomat for a more peaceful world. In his autobiography, Making Weapons, Talking Peace: A Physicist's Odyssey from Hiroshima to Geneva, York remarks about himself and fellow physics graduate students at the University of California (UC) at Berkeley, "We were in exactly the right place at the right time." He was referring to their ability to obtain far more research time on the new giant cyclotron for their own projects than would have been possible a few years later. Yet, that statement appears to apply to many events in the early years of his professional life. York's appointment as director of the new nuclear weapons laboratory in 1952 established a pattern of "firsts" that was to continue for a decade.