Martin D. Whitaker

Martin Dewey Whitaker (June 29, 1902 – August 31, 1960) was an American physicist who was the first director of the Clinton Laboratories (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) during World War II. He served as president of Lehigh University from 1946 until his death in 1960.

Early life and education Martin Dewey Whitaker was born in Ellenboro, North Carolina, on June 29, 1902, the son of Volney Oscar Whitaker and Florence O. Bridges. He graduated from Boiling Springs High School, later to become Gardner-Webb University, in 1922. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree from Wake Forest College in 1927. He worked as an instructor at the University of North Carolina from 1928 to 1930, earning a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in physics. He was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from New York University in 1935, writing his thesis on the "Absorption and scattering of neutrons".

Career Whitaker was acting chairman of the department of physics at New York University until 1942, when he joined the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago during World War II. The first permanent operating staff arrived at X-10 from the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago in April 1944, by which time DuPont began transferring its technicians to the site. They were augmented by one hundred technicians in uniform from the Manhattan District's Special Engineer Detachment. By March 1944, there were some 1,500 people working at X-10.

After the war's end, Whitaker left Oak Ridge to take up the post of president of Lehigh University on June 1, 1946.

He died of lung cancer in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on August 31, 1960. He was survived by his wife, the former Helen Williams, and their two daughters, Margaret and Catherine.