About Joseph McKibben
Lived 1912 – 2001 (aged 88–89). Joseph McKibben was an American nuclear physicist and physicist.
Joseph Laws McKibben (1912 – 2001) was an American physicist and engineer who worked with J. Robert Oppenheimer as a group leader on the Manhattan Project. He personally witnessed the Trinity test and flipped the switches that activated the timers that set off the atomic bomb at Trinity.
McKibben, motivated by his daughter Karan's paralysed hands due to polio, also invented the Air Muscle in 1957.
He was born in 1912 in Missouri. He died in 2001 in Los Alamos, aged 89. His remains, and those of his wife and daughter, were interred at Guaje Pines Cemetery in Los Alamos.
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Important facts
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Contemporaries
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Frequently asked questions
Who was Joseph McKibben?
American physicist and engineer
When was Joseph McKibben born?
Joseph McKibben was born in 1912 in Missouri, Auxvasse.
When did Joseph McKibben die?
Joseph McKibben died in 2001 in Los Alamos.
What was Joseph McKibben's occupation?
Joseph McKibben was a nuclear physicist and physicist.
What nationality was Joseph McKibben?
Joseph McKibben was American.
Sources & further reading
· DBpedia: Joseph Laws McKibben
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Joseph McKibben. https://biography.guide/joseph-mckibben/
MLA: "Joseph McKibben." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/joseph-mckibben/.
Chicago: "Joseph McKibben." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/joseph-mckibben/.
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