Lilli Hornig
Hornig's Los Alamos ID photo, c. 1944
Born
Lilli Schwenk
Czech: Lilli Schwenková

(1921-03-22)March 22, 1921
Ústí nad Labem, Czechoslovakia
DiedNovember 17, 2017(2017-11-17) (aged 96)
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
Academic background
Alma materBryn Mawr,
Harvard University
Academic work
InstitutionsManhattan Project,
Brown University
Trinity College
Notable worksHigher Education Resource Services

Lilli Hornig (née Schwenk, Czech: Lilli Schwenková; March 22, 1921 – November 17, 2017) was a Czech-American scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project, as well as a feminist activist.[1][2][3]

Early life

Hornig was born in Ústí nad Labem in 1921[4] into a Jewish family[5] to Erwin Schwenk, an organic chemist, and the former Rascha Shapiro, a pediatrician.[6]

In 1929 her family moved to Berlin. Four years later she and her mother came to the United States, following her father who had moved there to escape the Nazis.[2] As her parents were Jewish, her father was threatened with imprisonment in a concentration camp.[7]

She obtained her BA from Bryn Mawr in 1942 and her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1950.[3] In 1943 she married Donald Hornig. They had four children.[6]

Career

Hornig accompanied her husband to Los Alamos where he had obtained a job. After being originally asked to take a typing test, her scientific skills were recognized and she was given a job as a staff scientist working with plutonium chemistry for the Manhattan Project.[8][9]

When it was later decided that plutonium chemistry was too dangerous for women, Hornig worked in high-explosive lenses instead. While at Los Alamos, she signed a petition urging that the first atom bomb be used on an uninhabited island as a demonstration.[8]

Hornig later became a chemistry professor at Brown University,[10] and chairwoman of the chemistry department at Trinity College in Washington, D.C.[8][11] She was appointed by President Johnson as a member of a mission to the Republic of Korea that began the founding of the Korea Institute for Science and Technology.[3]

A feminist, Hornig was the founding director of HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) under the auspices of the Committee for the Concerns of Women in New England Colleges and Universities first organized by Sheila Tobias.[3] She served on equal opportunity committees for the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was the research chair of the Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard, and consulted with and participated in many studies of women's science education and careers.[3]

Hornig was a Life Trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and was a trustee of the Wheeler School.[3]

Death

Hornig died on November 17, 2017, in Providence, Rhode Island, aged 96.[12]

In the 2023 film Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, Hornig was portrayed by actor Olivia Thirlby.[13][14]

Works

  • Climbing the Academic Ladder: Doctoral Women Scientists in Academe (1979) OCLC 967445183
  • Equal Rites, Unequal Outcomes: Women in American Research Universities. Innovations in Science Education and Technology. Springer Netherlands. 2012. ISBN 978-94-010-0007-9. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
  • Women Scientists in Industry and Government: How Much Progress in the 1970s. Washington, D.C., 1980. ISBN 9780309030236, OCLC 256349315
  • Scientific sexism, New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1979. OCLC 802457414
Translations
  • From My Life. The Memoirs of Richard Willstätter. New York: W.A. Benjamin, 1965. OCLC 612707312

References

  1. ↑ Martin, Douglas (2013-01-26). "Donald Hornig, Last to See First A-Bomb, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Voices of the Manhattan Project, Lilli Hornig's Interview". Manhattanprojectvoices.org. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Untitled" (PDF). Wesconnect, Wesleyan University. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Destrukce ji nepřekvapila. Rodačka z Ústí pracovala na bombě pro Nagasaki". iDNES.cz. 6 August 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Roberts, Sam (2017-11-21). "Lilli Hornig, 96, Dies; A-Bomb Researcher Lobbied for Women in Science". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-12-23. Lilli Schwenk was born into a Jewish family on March 22, 1921, in Aussig, in the Sudetenland, which was then part of Czechoslovakia.
  6. 1 2 Roberts, Sam (21 November 2017). "Lilli Hornig, 96, Dies; A-Bomb Researcher Lobbied for Women in Science". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "Lilli Hornig's Interview". Manhattanprojectvoices.org. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 "Chemical & Engineering News". American Chemical Society. July 17, 1995. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
  9. ↑ Ruth H. Howes (April 1, 2003). Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project. Temple University Press. pp. 85–. ISBN 978-1-59213-192-1.
  10. ↑ "Lilli Hornig". Brown University News. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
  11. ↑ "Dr. Lilli Hornig: A Prophetic Voice | President's Office - Trinity Washington University". www.trinitydc.edu. 2017-12-03. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
  12. ↑ "Lilli Hornig, 96, Dies; A-Bomb Researcher Lobbied for Women in Science". The New York Times. November 21, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  13. ↑ Moss, Molly; Knight, Lewis (July 22, 2023). "Oppenheimer cast: Full list of actors in Christopher Nolan film". Radio Times. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Oppenheimer also features a female Czech scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project". The Prague Reporter. July 21, 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
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