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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Elliot Charney

Elliot Charney was an American Chemist who worked on the Manhattan Project at Columbia University.

Charney received his B.S. in Chemistry from the City College of New York in 1942 and was recruited to join the Manhattan Project by John Dunning, the chemist in charge of the gaseous diffusion program at Columbia University. Charney worked closely with Edward Norris and Edward Adler in the basement of the Pupin Laboratory to develop a suitable barrier for the gaseous diffusion process of uranium separation.

After the war, Charney wrote the first volume of the history of the Manhattan Project from the Atomic Energy Commission. After earning his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1956, Charney joined the National Insitutes of Health, where he would remained until his retirement in 1990.