Henry DeWolf Smyth was born in Clinton, New York, on May 1, 1898, to geologist Charles Henry Smyth Jr. and Ruth Anne Smyth (née Phelps). The family moved to Princeton, New Jersey, in 1905, when Charles Henry Smyth joined the faculty at Princeton University. Henry DeWolf Smyth received a PhD in Physics from Princeton in 1921. In 1923, he received a second doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge, where renowned physicist Ernest Rutherford served as his doctoral advisor. Smyth became a faculty member at Princeton in 1924. He married Mary de Coningh in 1936.
During World War II, Smyth was a member of the National Defense Research Committee’s Uranium Section. He served as a consultant on the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945. In anticipation of the US bombings of Japan in August 1945, General Leslie Groves appointed Smyth to write the federal government’s official report on the development of atomic bombs. “Atomic Energy for Military Purposes,” popularly known as the “Smyth Report,” was released to the public on August 12, 1945, only days after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The report was widely disseminated throughout the US to inform the American public about atomic weapons.
After the war, Smyth continued to promote openness regarding atomic energy. He served as a commissioner on the US Atomic Energy Commission from 1949 to 1954 and was the US Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1961 to 1970. Smyth died at his home in Princeton on September 11, 1986, at the age of 88.
Sources:
Atomic Heritage Foundation, "Henry DeWolf Smyth," n.d.
Atomic Heritage Foundation, "Secrecy Unveiled – 1945," 2014.
McQuiston, John T., "Dr. Henry Smyth, Ex-Member of Atom Panel," The New York Times, 1986.
Nuclear Princeton, "Atomic Energy for Military Purposes (Smyth Report)," n.d.
Nuclear Princeton, "Henry DeWolf Smyth (1898-1986)," n.d.
Weber, Tommy, "Hard-Headed Physicist; Henry DeWolf Smyth," The New York Times, 1962.
Author: Emmey Harris
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