Henry W. Newson

Henry Winston Newson (November 26, 1909, in Lawrence, Kansas – May 14, 1978, in Durham, North Carolina) was an American physical chemist and nuclear physicist, known for his research on nuclear resonances and as one of the co-inventors of the control system used in nuclear reactors. His thesis advisor was William Draper Harkins. Henry Newson married Meta F. Thode in 1934. The couple spent two years from 1934 to 1936 at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. There he worked as a research fellow assisting Ernest O. Lawrence in constructing the laboratory's cyclotron. At the University of Chicago from 1936 to 1941 Newson was an instructor, first in chemistry and subsequently in physics. From 1941 to 1943 Henry Newson was a senior physicist in the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab), where in December 1942 the first controlled nuclear chain reaction was produced. From 1943 to 1944 he was a section chief at Clinton Laboratories (later renamed Oak Ridge National Laboratory). He was from 1944 to 1945 a technical expert at Hanford Engineering Works and from 1945 to 1946 a group leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory, during the development of the atomic bomb. From 1946 to 1948 he was a chief physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1948 the Newsons' second daughter, Caroline, was born, and he became a full professor in the physics department of Duke University.

Newson chaired Duke University's physics department from 1973 to 1975. He was a professor of physics at Duke University and TUNL's director until his death in 1978. His successor as TUNL's director was his former doctoral student, Edward Bilpuch Upon his death the Newson family established the Henry W. Newson Lecture Series Fund at Duke University. Henry Newson was survived by his widow, two daughters, and six grandchildren.

Selected publications