William W. Havens, Jr.

William Westerfield Havens Jr. (March 31, 1920 – June 29, 2004) was an American physicist.

A graduate of City College of New York and Columbia University, Havens worked with James Rainwater on the construction of a neutron spectrometer, which became the subject of his doctoral thesis. During World War II he worked on the Manhattan Project, the effort to create the first atomic bombs, in its Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories.

Havens was awarded his doctorate in 1946 after his thesis was declassified. He spent the rest of his career at Columbia University, where he became a full professor in 1955, and was its director of nuclear science and engineering from 1961 to 1977. He was part of the US delegation at the United Nations Atoms for Peace Conferences in Geneva in July and August 1955 and in September 1958, and became a consultant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1962. He retired from Columbia in 1985, and from then until 1990 was the first full-time CEO of the American Physical Society.

Early life Havens was born in the Bronx on March 31, 1920, the son of William Havens Sr., a civil engineer, and Elsie S. Nedle, a schoolteacher. He had an older sister, Marjorie, who became a lawyer. He was a descendant of Jonathan Nicoll Havens, a politician who served in the United States Congress from 1795 to 1799. He was educated at Evander Childs High School, from which he graduated in 1935 at the age of 15. His father wanted him to enter Columbia University, his own alma mater, but Columbia would not accept him on account of his age. He therefore entered the City College of New York, which he attended on a scholarship. While there he was on the swimming team, and served in the ROTC, reaching the rank of cadet captain. During the summer of 1938 he was a lifeguard at the ROTC camp. The following year he worked as a lifeguard at Jones Beach Island. He graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1939, majoring in mathematics and chemistry. He then began working on his doctorate under the supervision of John R. Dunning. Fellow graduate students in physics at the time included James Rainwater, Herbert L. Anderson and George Weil. He worked with Rainwater on the construction of a neutron spectrometer. was classified.

Later life Havens spent the rest of his career at Columbia University, where he became a full professor in 1955, and was its director of nuclear science and engineering from 1961 to 1977. who explained, "We’ve got to keep something secret". In 1985, Havens retired from Columbia and became the first full-time CEO of the American Physical Society (APS), the largest professional physicists' body in the world. He retired from this in 1990. He oversaw the APS a period of considerable growth, and worked with Vera Kistiakowsky to promote the role of women in science.