Norris Bradbury
Our second director Norris Bradbury played an important role in the success of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Norris Bradbury was the director of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for 25 years. He immediately succeeded J. Robert Oppenheimer at a time immediately after WWII when many people thought the lab was going to be shut down. Some people argue persuasively that Norris kept the laboratory alive in the years between the end of WWII and the testing of the first Soviet atomic bomb. After that, it was generally believed that LASL had an important role to play. Norris Bradbury died in 1997.
Norris Bradbury came from California, and was not related to Ray Bradbury, the author. Ray and Norris did write humorous letters back and forth at one point. They were both well enough known to be confused with each other.
Norris Bradbury and Dorothy McKibbin visited the site of the office in Santa Fe where she processed scientists arriving to work on Project Y of the Manhattan Project.
