April 16th
1:00pm at DesertView Theater
“The Science & Technology of the Manhattan Project, 1932-1945.”
Dr. Lockwood Carlson will document America’s project to develop and
implement an atomic bomb during WWII — an almost impossible
technical goal. It involved thousands of people but relied on the
scientific expertise, engineering skills, and innovations of a select group
of scientists and engineers put together at Los Alamos, NM over less
than one year. How did they confront and overcome so many ‘show
stoppers’? When the primary approach failed to meet the strategic
needs of the armed forces, a whole new concept was developed,
tested, scaled up and ‘weaponized’ in 3-4 years. This is the story of
nuclear fission from the 1930s to August 1945 and the key participants
as they raced to complete their mission — not knowing if they could
reach their goal in time.
Lockwood Carlson holds a Theoretical Physics PhD from the University
Wyoming and performed graduate research at Princeton University on
electrodynamics of black holes in General Relativity. He retired from
3M Company in 2001 as Corporate Scientist with several patents in
optical materials for digital displays.
Earlier, he was the Chief Scientist for major DoD program on advanced
technology and held the Endowed Chair in Technological Leadership at
the University of Minnesota for 12 years — on the faculty of the
Management of Technology program.
He also teaches courses on cosmology, astrophysics, nanotechnology,
quantum field theory, energy issues, artificial intelligence in medical
science, and climate science at University of Arizona OLLI, University of
Minnesota OLLI and Saddlebrooke Lifelong Learning Institute.
Lockwood consults on advanced technology for Medtronic, Inc., and
serves on the board of TSI Inc., a leading global nanotechnology
company. He also consults on emerging technology in nuclear energy
(small modular reactors) and renewable energy technologies
Faculty concerned about changes to U of A admissions policy
