Editing Ernest Lawrence (section)

== Post-war career ==

=== Big Science ===
After the war, Lawrence campaigned extensively for government sponsorship of large scientific programs. He was a forceful advocate of Big Science with its requirements for big machines and big money, and in 1946 he asked the Manhattan Project for over $2 million for research at the Radiation Laboratory ({{Inflation|US-GDP|2000000|1946|r=-6|fmt=eq}}). Groves approved the money, but cut a number of programs, including Seaborg's proposal for a "hot" radiation laboratory in densely populated Berkeley, and John Lawrence's for production of medical isotopes, because this need could now be better met from nuclear reactors. One obstacle was the University of California, which was eager to divest its wartime military obligations. Lawrence and Groves managed to persuade Sproul to accept a contract extension.{{sfn|Herken|2002|p=168}} In 1946, the Manhattan Project spent $7 on physics at the University of California for every dollar spent by the university.{{sfn|Seidel|1983|p=398}}

{{Quote box
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|quote=To most of his colleagues, Lawrence appeared to have almost an aversion to mathematical thought. He had a most unusual intuitive approach to involved physical problems, and when explaining new ideas to him, one quickly learned not to befog the issue by writing down the differential equation that might appear to clarify the situation. Lawrence would say something to the effect that he didn't want to be bothered by the mathematical details, but "explain the physics of the problem to me." One could live close to him for years, and think of him as being almost mathematically illiterate, but then be brought up sharply to see how completely he retained his skill in the mathematics of classical electricity and magnetism.
|source=Luis Alvarez{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|p=253}}
}}
The 184-inch cyclotron was completed with wartime dollars from the Manhattan Project. It incorporated new ideas by Ed McMillan, and was completed as a [[synchrocyclotron]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www2.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/early-years.html |title = Ernest Lawrence's Cyclotron}}</ref> It commenced operation on November 13, 1946.{{sfn|Childs|1968|p=387}} For the first time since 1935, Lawrence actively participated in the experiments, working with [[Eugene Gardner]] in an unsuccessful attempt to create recently discovered [[pi meson]]s with the synchrotron. [[César Lattes]] then used the apparatus they had created to find negative pi mesons in 1948.{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|pp=277–279}}

Responsibility for the [[United States Department of Energy national laboratories|national laboratories]] passed to the newly created [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC) on January 1, 1947.{{sfn|Herken|2002|p=170}} That year, Lawrence asked for $15 million for his projects ({{Inflation|US-GDP|15000000|1947|r=-6|fmt=eq}}), which included a new linear accelerator and a new gigaelectronvolt synchrotron which became known as the [[bevatron]]. The University of California's contract to run the Los Alamos laboratory was due to expire on July 1, 1948, and some board members wished to divest the university of the responsibility for running a site outside California. After some negotiation, the university agreed to extend the contract for what was now the Los Alamos National Laboratory for four more years and to appoint [[Norris Bradbury]], who had replaced Oppenheimer as its director in October 1945, as a professor. Soon after, Lawrence received all the funds he had requested.{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=176, 182–183}}

[[File:HD.4G.019 (10409853774).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Lawrence (right) with [[Robert Oppenheimer]] at the 184-inch cyclotron, circa 1946]]

Notwithstanding the fact that he voted for [[Franklin Roosevelt]], Lawrence was a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]],{{sfn|Childs|1968|p=186}} who had strongly disapproved of Oppenheimer's efforts before the war to unionize the Radiation Laboratory workers, which Lawrence considered "leftwandering activities".{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=319–320}} Lawrence considered political activity to be a waste of time better spent in scientific research, and preferred that it be kept out of the Radiation Laboratory.<ref name="Distillations">{{cite journal|year=2016|first=Haertsch |last=Emilie|title=Large and in charge |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/large-and-in-charge|journal=Distillations|volume=2|issue=3|pages=40–43|access-date=March 22, 2018}}</ref>
In the chilly [[Cold War]] climate of the post-war University of California, Lawrence accepted the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]'s actions as legitimate, and did not see them as indicative of a systemic problem involving [[academic freedom]] or [[human rights]]. He was protective of individuals in his laboratory, but even more protective of the reputation of the laboratory.<ref name="Distillations"/> He was forced to defend Radiation Laboratory staff members like [[Robert Serber]] who were investigated by the university's Personnel Security Board. In several cases, he issued character references in support of staff. However, Lawrence barred Robert Oppenheimer's brother [[Frank Oppenheimer|Frank]] from the Radiation Laboratory, damaging his relationship with Robert.{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=190–192}} An acrimonious loyalty oath campaign at the University of California also drove away faculty members.{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=220–222}} When hearings were held to revoke Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance, Lawrence declined to attend on account of illness, but a transcript in which he was critical of Oppenheimer was presented in his absence. Lawrence's success in building a creative, collaborative laboratory was undermined by the ill-feeling and distrust resulting from political tensions.<ref name="Distillations"/>

=== Thermonuclear weapons ===
Lawrence was alarmed by the [[Soviet Union]]'s [[RDS-1|first nuclear test]] in August 1949. The proper response, he concluded, was an all-out effort to build a bigger nuclear weapon: the [[hydrogen bomb]].{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=200–202}} He proposed to use accelerators instead of nuclear reactors to produce the neutrons needed to create the [[tritium]] the bomb required, as well as plutonium, which was more difficult, as much higher energies would be required.<ref name=Lbl1981>{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Magazine/1981/81fchp5.html|title=Lawrence and His Laboratory – A historian's view of the Lawrence year|chapter=Chapter 5: Cold War in Science|first1=J. L.|last1=Heilbron|first2=Robert W.|last2=Seidel|last3=Wheaton|first3=Bruce R.|publisher=Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory|year=1981|access-date=October 5, 2013|archive-date=October 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006230738/http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Magazine/1981/81fchp5.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He first proposed the construction of Mark I, a prototype $7 million, 25 MeV [[linear accelerator]], codenamed Materials Test Accelerator (MTA).<ref name=Lbl1981 />{{sfn|Herken|2002|p=220}} He was soon talking about a new, even larger MTA known as the Mark II, which could produce [[tritium]] or [[plutonium]] from depleted uranium-238. Serber and Segrè attempted in vain to explain the technical problems that made it impractical, but Lawrence felt that they were being unpatriotic.{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=234–235}}<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Magazine/1981/81fchp6.html|title=Lawrence and His Laboratory – A historian's view of the Lawrence year|chapter=Chapter 6: A Neutron Foundry|first1=J. L.|last1=Heilbron|first2=Robert W.|last2=Seidel|last3=Wheaton|first3=Bruce R.|publisher=Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory|year=1981|access-date=October 5, 2013|archive-date=October 6, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006232436/http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Magazine/1981/81fchp6.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Lawrence strongly backed [[Edward Teller]]'s campaign for a second nuclear weapons laboratory, which Lawrence proposed to locate with the MTA Mark I at [[Livermore, California]]. Lawrence and Teller had to argue their case not only with the Atomic Energy Commission, which did not want it, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was implacably opposed but with proponents who felt that Chicago was the more obvious site for it.{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=244–247}} The new laboratory at Livermore was finally approved on July 17, 1952, but the Mark II MTA was canceled. By this time, the Atomic Energy Commission had spent $45 million on the Mark I, which had commenced operation, but was mainly used to produce [[polonium]] for the nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile, the [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]]'s [[Cosmotron]] had generated a 1 GeV beam.{{sfn|Herken|2002|p=256}}

=== Radiological weapons ===
Lawrence was a staunch advocate of the US offensive [[radiological weapons]] program in the immediate post-war period. He was a member of an ad-hoc AEC panel recommending their further study, in which he urged fellow members to not draw comparisons to the more established fields of [[chemical]] and [[biological weapons]]. He also argued one advantage was their lack of an analogue to the [[Nuclear taboo|taboo against atomic weapons]]. Lawrence suggested a fleet of "twenty or thirty" [[Production reactor|production reactors]] dedicated to the program, for the weaponized isotope ultimately selected as [[tantalum-182]]. This would supplant the [[B Reactor]] which was at the time dedicated to [[plutonium-239]] and [[polonium-210]] production for nuclear weapons.<ref name="x266">{{cite journal |last=Meyer |first=Samuel |last2=Bidgood |first2=Sarah |last3=Potter |first3=William C. |year=2020 |title=Death Dust: The Little-Known Story of U.S. and Soviet Pursuit of Radiological Weapons |url=https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article-pdf/45/2/51/1860490/isec_a_00391.pdf |journal=International Security |publisher=MIT Press - Journals |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=51–94 |doi=10.1162/isec_a_00391 |issn=0162-2889 |access-date=2025-05-05 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Death and legacy ===
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Lawrence received the [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] and the [[Hughes Medal]] in 1937, the [[Comstock Prize in Physics]] in 1938, the [[Duddell Medal and Prize]] in 1940, the [[Holley Medal]] in 1942, the [[Medal for Merit]] in 1946, the [[William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement|William Procter Prize]] in 1951, [[Faraday Medal]] in 1952,{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|pp=285–286}} and the [[Enrico Fermi Award]] from the Atomic Energy Commission in 1957.{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=508–510}} He was elected a member of the United States [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1934,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ernest Lawrence |url=http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20000860.html |access-date=May 22, 2023 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> and both the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] and the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1937.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 9, 2023 |title=Ernest Orlando Lawrence |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/ernest-orlando-lawrence |access-date=May 22, 2023 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Ernest+Lawrence&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=May 22, 2023 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> He was made an [[Legion d'Honneur|Officer of the Legion d'Honneur]] in 1948,{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|pp=285–286}} and was the first recipient of the [[Sylvanus Thayer Award]] by the [[United States Military Academy|US Military Academy]] in 1958.{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=517–518}}

In July 1958, President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] asked Lawrence to travel to [[Geneva, Switzerland]], to help negotiate a proposed [[Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty]] with the [[Soviet Union]]. AEC Chairman [[Lewis Strauss]] had pressed for Lawrence's inclusion. The two men had argued the case for the development of the hydrogen bomb, and Strauss had helped raise funds for Lawrence's cyclotron in 1939. Strauss was keen to have Lawrence as part of the Geneva delegation because Lawrence was known to favor continued nuclear testing.{{sfn|Greene|2007|pp=156–158, 289}} Despite suffering from a serious flare-up of his chronic [[ulcerative colitis]], Lawrence decided to go, but he became ill while in Geneva, and was rushed back to the [[Stanford University Medical Center|hospital]] at [[Stanford University]].{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=325–325}} Surgeons [[Ileostomy|removed much of his large intestine]], but found other problems, including severe [[atherosclerosis]] in one of his arteries.{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=532–534}} He died in [[Stanford University Medical Center|Palo Alto Hospital]] on August 27, 1958,<ref name=eugregag58/><ref name=oxupiobt>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KVJLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eyMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=7039%2C5402806 |work=Oxnard Press-Courier |location=(California)|agency=UPI|title=Lawrence, inventor of cyclotron; dies |date=August 28, 1958 |page=2}}</ref> nineteen days after his 57th birthday.{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|p=283}} Molly did not want a public funeral but agreed to a memorial service at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. University of California President [[Clark Kerr]] delivered the [[eulogy]].{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=532–534}}

Almost immediately after Lawrence's death, the [[Regents of the University of California]] voted to rename two of the university's nuclear research labs after Lawrence: the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] and the [[Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://energy.gov/articles/photo-week-inside-60-inch-cyclotron |title=Photo of the Week: Inside the 60-Inch Cyclotron  |publisher=[[United States Department of Energy]] |access-date=August 24, 2013}}</ref> The [[Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award]] was established in his memory in 1959.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://science.energy.gov/lawrence/ |title=Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award |publisher=[[United States Department of Energy]] |access-date=August 24, 2013}}</ref> Chemical element number 103, discovered at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1961, was named [[lawrencium]] after him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://alumni.berkeley.edu/news/california-magazine/may-june-2007-new-food-and-farming/100-years-of-scholarship |publisher=Cal Alumni |title=100 Years of Scholarship |access-date=August 24, 2013 |archive-date=October 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002154354/http://alumni.berkeley.edu/news/california-magazine/may-june-2007-new-food-and-farming/100-years-of-scholarship |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1968 the [[Lawrence Hall of Science]] public science education center was established in his honor.{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|p=284}} His papers are in the [[Bancroft Library]] at the University of California, Berkeley.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0g5001n2/ |title=Guide to the Ernest O. Lawrence Papers |access-date=May 24, 2015 |publisher=[[Online Archive of California]] }}</ref>

In the 1980s, Lawrence's widow petitioned the University of California Board of Regents on several occasions to remove her husband's name from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, due to its focus on nuclear weapons Lawrence helped build, but was denied each time.<ref name="urwr">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TQ8wAAAAIBAJ&pg=7200%2C3035093 |newspaper=Ocala Star-Banner |location=Ocala, FL |agency=Associated Press |title=University rejects widow's request |date=July 16, 1983 |page=15A |access-date=May 24, 2015}}</ref><ref name="phywid85">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-07-me-6709-story.html |archive-date=January 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150118013759/http://articles.latimes.com/1985-09-07/local/me-6709_1_livermore-weapons-lab  |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |last=Savage |first=David G. |title=Physicist's widow asks that husband's name be removed from weapons lab |date=September 7, 1985 |url-status=live |access-date=May 9, 2014}}</ref><ref name="sciexc">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/8256/title/So-They-Say/ |magazine=The Scientist |title=So they say |last=Lawrence |first=Mary B. |date=October 1986 |access-date=May 9, 2014}}</ref><ref name="namech87">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3V8aAAAAIBAJ&pg=1704%2C6781839 |newspaper=Milwaukee Journal |agency=Associated Press |title=Name change |date=June 8, 1987 |page=2A |access-date=May 24, 2015 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> She outlived her husband by more than 44 years and died in [[Walnut Creek, California]], at the age of 92 on January 6, 2003.<ref name="lmdowml" /><ref name="bklyobitml" />

[[George Kauffman|George B. Kauffman]] wrote that: {{blockquote|Before him, "little science" was carried out largely by lone individuals working with modest means on a small scale. After him, massive industrial, and especially governmental, expenditures of manpower and monetary funding made "big science," carried out by large-scale research teams, a major segment of the national economy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.anb.org/articles/13/13-00960.html |first=George B. |last=Kauffman |author-link=George B. Kauffman |title=Lawrence, Ernest Orlando |work=American National Biography Online |date=February 2000 |access-date=June 22, 2015 }}</ref> }}

Lawrence is portrayed by [[Josh Hartnett]] in [[Christopher Nolan]]'s 2023 film ''[[Oppenheimer (film)|Oppenheimer]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://time.com/6295742/oppenheimer-review/|magazine=Time|author-last=Zacharek | author-first= Stephanie|title=''Oppenheimer'' Dazzles With Its Epic Story of a Complicated Patriot|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=July 19, 2023|access-date=July 20, 2023|archive-date=July 20, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230720143848/https://time.com/6295742/oppenheimer-review/}}</ref>