Title:

John W. Gofman papers, approximately 1930-2010

Creator/Contributor:

Gofman, John W., creator, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

O'Connor, Egan.

Creator/Contributor:

Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, Inc

Contains correspondence, research files, lab notebooks, writings, articles, speeches, book drafts, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings relating to all aspects of Dr. Gofman's career. Also includes records, correspondence, and publications of the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility, including the work of Gofman's colleague and friend, Egan O'Connor.

Date:

1930 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Gofman, John W -- Archives

Donner Laboratory.

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

University of California, Berkeley. -- Department of Biophysics and Medical Physics -- Faculty

University of California, Berkeley. -- Department of Physics -- Faculty

Donner Laboratory.

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

Nuclear physicists -- California -- Berkeley

Medical physics

Radiation -- Dosage

Nuclear power plants

Antinuclear movement

Nuclear physics -- Research

Antinuclear movement

Medical physics

Nuclear physics -- Research

Nuclear power plants

Radiation -- Dosage

Included in: History of Science and Technology Collection.

UNARRANGED COLLECTION. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE. Inquiries regarding these materials should be submitted to The Bancroft Library via the Notice of Interest in Unprocessed Collections form.

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for use.

John W. Gofman papers, BANC MSS 87/108. the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

In English.

John William Gofman was born in Cleveland, Ohio on September 1, 1918. He graduated with a degree in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1939, and he was awarded a Ph.D. in nuclear and physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1943. His dissertation work, conducted under Glenn Seaborg, led to the discovery of several radioisotopes, including uranium-233, which proved fissionable. As part of the Manhattan Project, and at the request of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Gofman isolated 1.2 grams of plutonium for experimental purposes at the Los Alamos Laboratory. He obtained a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco in 1946. After a year's internship he began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley in the Division of Medical Physics, a part of the Physics Department. During this time he conducted early research on the significance of lipids and cholesterol in heart disease at the Donner Laboratory. In 1963 with the encouragement of Glenn Seaborg, who was then chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, Gofman established the Biomedical Research Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to investigate the biological effects of radiation. In 1969 he and colleague Arthur Tamplin published their findings that the risk of cancer was greatly increased by exposure to radiation. They urged that public exposure be reduced and for planned projects to use nuclear explosives for digging harbors and canals be canceled. Unhappy with these findings, government funding for the research facility dried up, and Gofman left the lab in 1971 to return to teaching at Berkeley. He continued to speak out about the dangers of radiation exposure, calling on the government to drastically revise standards for radiation exposure, limit nuclear tests, and halt the construction of nuclear power plants. He established the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility in 1971, a non-profit organization that published numerous pamphlets and books on the effects of medical radiation and the risks of nuclear power. He continued to head CNR after his retirement from UC Berkeley in 1973 until his death on August 15, 2007.

Type:

Manuscripts for publication.

Testimonies.

Addresses.

print

186 (148 1

English

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library/unprocessed-collections-form

Origin:

California

UNARRANGED COLLECTION. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE. Inquiries regarding these materials should be submitted to The Bancroft Library via the Notice of Interest in Unprocessed Collections form.

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for use.