Joseph W. Kennedy

Who was Joseph W. Kennedy?

Joseph William Kennedy was an American chemist who was a co-discoverer of plutonium, along with Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan and Arthur Wahl. During World War II he was head of the CM Division at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos laboratory, where he oversaw research onto the chemistry and metallurgy of uranium and plutonium. After the war was recruited as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is credited with transforming a university primarily concerned with undergraduate teaching into one that also has boasts strong graduate and research programs. He died of cancer at the age of 40.