Norman Hilberry

Norman Hilberry was an American physicist, best known as the director of the Argonne National Laboratory from 1956 to 1961. In December 1942 he was the man who stood ready with an axe to cut the scram line during the start up of Chicago Pile1, the worlds first nuclear reactor to achieve criticality.

Horace van Norman Hilberry was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 11, 1899. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1921, and then became an assistant in physics at the University of Chicago. In 1925 he became an instructor in physics at Washington Square College in New York, where he rose to become an assistant professor in 1928. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1941, writing his thesis on Extensive cosmicray showers and the energy distribution of the primary cosmic rays.

Source: Wikipedia