Manson Benedict

Manson Benedict begins the interview with a discussion of his
family background, including the highlights of his father's career
in chemistry. He recalls how his early enthusiasm for chemistry
was promoted both by his father's work and his summer jobs with
Calumet and Hecla Copper Company. He then tells of his
dissatisfaction with his Cornell University education, his year at
National Aniline, and his decision to enroll at the University of
Chicago to obtain a broader liberal education during which he
explored economics and socialism. After a colorful description of
a summer's work on a fruit farm in Washington state, Benedict
describes his enrollment in a graduate physical chemistry program
at MIT. He then discusses his National Research Fellowship at
Harvard and his decision to work at Kellogg, where he developed the
Benedict-Webb-Rubin equation. He describes his significant role in
the Manhattan Project, and touches on his subsequent appointment to
the Atomic Energy Commission. He concludes with his return to MIT
to develop a nuclear engineering curriculum, the accomplishment of
which he is most proud.

National Aniline and Chemical Co.

1929 - 1930 Research Chemist

National Aniline and Chemical Co.

1937 - 1938 Research Chemist

Harvard University

1935 - 1936 National Research Council Fellow

Harvard University

1936 - 1937 Research Associate in Geophysics

M. W. Kellogg Company

1938 - 1943 Research Chemist

Hydrocarbon Research, Inc.

1946 - 1951 Director Process Development

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission

1948 - 1958 Reactor Safeguard Committee (later Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards)

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission

1951 - 1952

Chief, Operational Analysis Staff

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission

1958 - 1968 General Advisory Committee

National Research Corporation

1951 - 1957

Scientific Advisor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1951 - 1969 Professor of Nuclear Engineering

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1958 - 1971 Head, Nuclear Engineering Department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1969 - 1973 Institute Professor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1973 Institute Professor Emeritus

Advisory Council on Radiation Protection, Massachusetts

1964 - 1988 Member

Federal Energy Administration

1973 - 1975 Energy Research and Development Advisory Council

James J. Bohning

James J. Bohning is professor emeritus of chemistry at Wilkes University, where he was a faculty member from 1959 to 1990. He served there as chemistry department chair from 1970 to 1986 and environmental science department chair from 1987 to 1990. Bohning was chair of the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry in 1986; he received the division’s Outstanding Paper Award in 1989 and has presented more than forty papers at national meetings of the society. Bohning was on the advisory committee of the society’s National Historic Chemical Landmarks Program from its inception in 1992 through 2001 and is currently a consultant to the committee. He developed the oral history program of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, and he was the foundation’s director of oral history from 1990 to 1995. From 1995 to 1998, Bohning was a science writer for the News Service group of the American Chemical Society. He is currently a visiting research scientist and CESAR Fellow at Lehigh University. In May 2005, he received the Joseph Priestley Service Award from the Susquehanna Valley Section of the American Chemical Society.