biography
| name: |
Penney, William (George) Penney, Baron
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1909–91)
|
| biography:
| Physicist, born in Gibraltar. He studied at London, Wisconsin, and Cambridge universities, was appointed professor of mathematics at the Imperial College of Science, London, worked at Los Alamos, CA, on the atom bomb project (1944–5), and was an observer when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. He became director of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston (1953–9), and was chairman (1964–7) of the UK Atomic Energy Authority. He was the key figure in the UK's success in producing its own atomic (1952) and hydrogen bombs (1957). Knighted in 1952, he was created a life peer in 1967, and became Rector of Imperial College London (1967–73). |
|
|
