Horace van Norman Hilberry was born in
Cleveland, Ohio, on March 11, 1899. He received his
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree from
Oberlin College in 1921, and then became an assistant in physics at the
University of Chicago. In 1925 he became an instructor in physics at
Washington Square College in New York, where he rose to become an
assistant professor in 1928. In 1941, Hilberry joined what would become the
Manhattan Project, the effort to create an
atomic bomb during
World War II. He moved to the University of Chicago to help
Arthur H. Compton in any way possible. Hilberry became associate director of Compton's Metallurgical Project. On December 2, 1942, he was present for the start up of
Chicago Pile-1, the world's first
nuclear reactor to achieve
criticality. Because of fears that the reaction could "run away", Hilberry stood ready with an axe to cut the
scram line, a manila rope connected to control rods that could quickly shut the reactor down. He was also present for the start-up of the
X-10 Graphite Reactor in November 1943, and the reactors at the
Hanford Engineer Works the following year. He returned to the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago in 1945. and Hilberry as associate director. He became the deputy director in 1949, and the director in June 1956, He stepped down in November 1961, and was replaced by
Albert Crewe. He remained at Argonne as a senior scientist until 1964, when he accepted an appointment as professor of nuclear engineering at the
University of Arizona. He retired and became a
professor emeritus in 1985. He was elected a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1933. He was president of the American Nuclear Society from 1965 to 1966. He was a member of the board of directors of the Atomic Industry Forum from 1961 to 1968, of the Advisory Committee on US Policy Toward the
International Atomic Energy Agency in 1962, and of the
National Academy of Sciences' Advisory Committee to the United States Office of Emergency Preparedness from 1968 to 1973. ==Notes==