Raemer Schreiber (Physicist) - On This Day

Profession: Physicist

Biography: Schreiber worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb.

He saw the first atomic bomb detonated in the Trinity nuclear test on 16 July 1945. Schreiber then prepared the Fat Man bomb that was used in the bombing of Nagasaki, travelling to the Pacific to assemble it. Schreiber went on to work on the design of the hydrogen bomb, and led the plutonium pit teams for Operation Crossroads nuclear tests on the Bikini Atoll in June and July 1946 and for the first thermonuclear hydrogen bomb (Ivy Mike) tests in 1952.

Schreiber was also one of the witnesses who survived the accident in which Louis Slotin was exposed to a fatal dose of neutron radiation during preparations for Operation Crossroads.

In later years Schreiber rose to become Deputy Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Born: November 11, 1910
Birthplace: McMinnville, Oregon, USA

Generation: Greatest Generation
Chinese Zodiac: Dog
Star Sign: Scorpio

Died: December 24, 1998 (aged 88)

Articles and Photos

Historical Events

  • 1945-07-26 Physicist Raemer Schreiber and Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva depart Kirtland Army Air Field to transport the plutonium core for the Fat Man bomb (bombing of Nagasaki) to the island of Tinian where the bomb is assembled
  • 1945-07-28 Physicist Raemer Schreiber and Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva arrive on the Pacific island of Tinian with the plutonium core used to assemble the Fat Man bomb used in the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9

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