Bernard Waldman (October 12, 1913 – November 1, 1986) was an American physicist who flew on the Hiroshima atomic bombing mission as a cameraman during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A graduate of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, joined the faculty of the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

in 1938. During

, he served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as an engineering officer. He headed a group that conducted blast measurements for the

Trinity nuclear test Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert abo ...

, and served on

Tinian Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of th ...

with

Project Alberta Project Alberta, also known as Project A, was a section of the Manhattan Project which assisted in delivering the first nuclear weapons in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Project Alberta was formed in March 19 ...

. After the war he returned to Notre Dame. He was director of the

Midwestern Universities Research Association The Midwestern Universities Research Association (MURA) was a collaboration between 15 universities with the goal of designing and building a particle accelerator for the Midwestern United States. It existed between 1953–1967, but could not achiev ...

Laboratory from 1960 to 1964, dean of its

Notre Dame College of Science The College of Science is a college within the University of Notre Dame. The Dean of the College of Science is Santiago Schnell, appointed Sept 1st, 2021. History The College of Science is established in 1865 by Rev. John Zahm, C.S.C., and in 1 ...

at Notre Dame from 1967 to 1979, and associate director of the

National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), located on the campus of Michigan State University was a isotope, rare isotope research facility in the United States.Bruns, Adam (January 2009How Are You Helping Companies Grow?''Site Sel ...

from 1979 to 1983.

Early life and education

Bernard Waldman was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on October 12, 1913. He attended

, from which he received Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. His thesis, on "The Resonance Processes in the Disintegration of Boron by Protons", formed the basis of a paper published in the ''

Physical Review ''Physical Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects of physics. It is published by the American Physical S ...

''. His research supported the estimates of

J. Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...

and

Robert Serber Robert Serber (March 14, 1909 – June 1, 1997) was an American physicist who participated in the Manhattan Project. Serber's lectures explaining the basic principles and goals of the project were printed and supplied to all incoming scientific st ...

. Although he was a Congregationalist, Waldman joined the faculty of the

in 1938. He became an

assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...

in 1941.

Manhattan Project

During

, Waldman served in the

as an engineering officer, and was involved in construction and extension of naval bases in the United States. He took a leave of absence from Notre Dame and joined Oppenheimer and Serber at the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

Los Alamos Laboratory The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Ro ...

in 1943. He was assigned to

Norman F. Ramsey Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (August 27, 1915 – November 4, 2011) was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the const ...

's E-7 Group, which was part of the Ordnance (O) Division responsible for "integration of design and delivery". Most of the work involved preparing and checking instrumentation from drop tests involving dummy bombs. Agnew on Tinian

Waldman was the head of Group TR-6 (Airborne Measurements) for the

in July 1945. He developed microphones that were dropped by parachute to measure the effect of the blast. He was then assigned to

, the part of the Manhattan Project that oversaw the preparation of facilities to test and deploy nuclear weapons, and support their use during the actual missions. As such, he participated in the

atomic bombing of Hiroshima The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the onl ...

, as a camera operator on the

observation aircraft A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering This is a list of intelligence gathering disciplines. HUMINT Human ...

. He was equipped with a special high-speed Fastax movie camera with six seconds of film in order to record the blast. Unfortunately, Waldman forgot to open the camera shutter, and no film was exposed.

Later life

After the war ended, Waldman returned to Notre Dame, where he continued his research into the

photodisintegration Photodisintegration (also called phototransmutation, or a photonuclear reaction) is a nuclear process in which an atomic nucleus absorbs a high-energy gamma ray, enters an excited state, and immediately decays by emitting a subatomic particle. The ...

deuterium Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two Stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being Hydrogen atom, protium, or hydrogen-1). The atomic nucleus, nucleus of a deuterium ato ...

and

beryllium Beryllium is a chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to form mi ...

. For a time he was in charge of a 3-million volt

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

that was the world`s second most powerful source of

X-rays An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 Picometre, picometers to 10 Nanometre, nanometers, corresponding to frequency, ...

in 1949. In 1960, Waldman took a sabbatical from Notre Dame to become director of the

(MURP) Laboratory. He set about fixing problems with the 50 MeV accelerator. These were resolved, but the Federal Government declined to fund MURP's activities, and Walden returned to Notre Dame in 1964. Waldman was appointed dean of Notre Dame's College of Science in 1967. He held this position August, 1979, when he retired at the age of 65. He then became as associate director of the

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, a position he held until 1983. Waldman died in a hospital in

Sanford, North Carolina Sanford is a city in Lee County, North Carolina, Lee County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 30,261 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lee County. History Sanford was named for C.O. Sanford, a railroad civil engineer i ...

, where he was being treated for cancer, on November 1, 1986. He was survived by his wife, Glenna and three daughters. A funeral service was held at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame, and he was interred in its Cedar Grove Cemetery. His papers are in the University of Notre Dame Archives.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waldman, Bernard 1913 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American physicists Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel Manhattan Project people Scientists from New York City American Congregationalists People associated with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki New York University alumni University of Notre Dame faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society