Agnew, Harold M. (Harold Melvin)

Harold M. Agnew was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1921. He received a B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Denver in 1942 and subsequently joined Fermi’s research group in Chicago. After a short time working at Columbia University, Agnew then moved with Enrico Fermi back to Chicago and participated in the construction of the pile under the west stands of Stagg Field. He was witness to the initiation of the first controlled nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942. Following this event, Agnew moved to the Los Alamos laboratory in 1943. On August 6, 1945, he flew with the 509th Composite Group to Hiroshima with Luis Alvarez and measured, from the air over the target, the yield of the first use of the atomic bomb.

In 1946, Agnew returned to Chicago to complete his graduate studies and received a Ph.D. in 1949 under the direction of Fermi. Following his stay at Chicago, he returned to Los Alamos in the Physics Division and eventually became the Weapons Division Leader (1964-1970). In 1970, Agnew became director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Retiring in 1979, he then became president of General Atomics until 1983. Agnew has served as New Mexico state senator (1955-1961), scientific advisor to SACEUR and NATO (1961-1964), member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee (1965-1973), chairman of the General Advisory Committee of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1974-1978), and White House Science Councilor (1982-1989). He received the E.O. Lawrence Award in 1966 and the Department of Energy’s Enrico Fermi Award in 1978. He is presently adjunct professor at the University of California at San Diego.