Important Faces of the Manhattan Project

Secret History

Leo Szilárd

It was Leo Szilárd who came up with the idea to send a confidential letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt explaining the possibility of nuclear weapons and encouraging him to develop a program that would create such a weapon.  It was Szilárd who acquired the endorsement and signature of Albert Einstein for this proposal.  It was this famed letter that eventually led to the formation of the Manhattan Project and the research of nuclear fission.

Szilárd later moved his work to the University of Chicago where he helped Enrico Fermi and J. Robert Oppenheimer construct the first nuclear reactor.

For more information on Leo Szilárd, visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Szilard