Mark Muir Mills (August 8, 1917 – April 7, 1958) was an American nuclear

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and a developer of

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

s. He was born in

Estes Park, Colorado Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corr ...

to Enoch and Ethel Mills. Prior to college he attended Estes Park High School and then moved to Ft. Lauderdale High School,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. He received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in 1940. 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 ...

, he served as a physicist at the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

, heading up the solid propellant section. He was also a physics instructor and lectured for the aeronautics department at Caltech. It was during the war in 1942 that he married Pauline Riedeburg. He completed his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in physics from Caltech in 1948. Following his graduation he started working at

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F ...

, performing theoretical work in their atomic energy research department. He and his colleagues made valuable contributions in the field of

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

technology. In 1951 he became technical director at

Project SQUID Project SQUID was a United States defense effort post-World War II effort to develop and improve pulsejet and rocket engines, run by the Office of Naval Researchbr> It was started by discovery of the German Argus As 014 pulsejet used on the V1 buz ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where basic research was performed in aircraft propulsion. In 1952 he returned to his work in reactor design at North American. In 1954 he joined the radiation laboratory at the University of California, becoming head of the theoretical division. By 1955 he was a part-time lecturer at the university, on the subject of nuclear reactor theory. He also helped organize the nuclear engineering program at the institution. He would become a professor of Nuclear Engineering at the university in 1957. He was also made chairman of the school's division of

nuclear engineering Nuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of breaking down atomic nuclei ( fission) or of combining atomic nuclei (fusion), or with the application of other sub-atomic processes based on the principles of n ...

. In 1958 he took a leave of absence to become deputy director of the Livermore radiation laboratory at the University of California. It was during this period that he was killed during an accident at the Eniwetok Proving Ground, located on the

Eniwetok Atoll Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

in the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

. He was flying in a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

that was forced down as a result of torrential rain. This accident occurred during the preparations for a series of

tests. Dr. Mills and his wife had two children, Mark John and Ann.

Awards and honors

* Presidential citation for significant contributions to the national defense. * The Mark Mills Memorial Library, part of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, was named for him. * American Nuclear Society's Mark Mills Award is named for him. * The crater

Mills Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to: As a name * Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin * Mills (given name) *Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine Places Uni ...

on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him.

Bibliography

* Mills, Mark M., ''Modern Nuclear Technology, a Survey for Industry and Business'', 1960, New York, McGraw-Hill. * Howard S. Seifert, Mark M. Mills and Martin Summerfield, ''Physics of Rockets: Liquid-Propellant Rockets'', AJP 15, 121–140, (1947). * Howard S. Seifert, Mark M. Mills and Martin Summerfield, ''Physics of Rockets: Dynamics of Long Range Rockets'', AJP 15, 255–272, (1947). * ''Safety of Nuclear Reactors''.

External links

Condolence letter from President Eisenhower to the widowed Mrs. Mills
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Mark M 1917 births 1958 deaths American nuclear physicists California Institute of Technology alumni Fort Lauderdale High School alumni People from Estes Park, Colorado Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1958 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the Marshall Islands Victims of helicopter accidents or incidents