Atom bomb developer dies

EUGENE (Oregon), DEC. 23. Aaron Novick, a developer of the atom bomb who later embraced nuclear disarmament, died on Thursday of pneumonia after a long fight with Parkinson's Disease. He was 81.

Novick was born to Polish immigrants in Toledo, Ohio, on June 24, 1919. He built his first telescope by the age of 12.

He earned a chemistry degree in 1940 and a doctorate in physical organic chemistry in 1943 from the University of Chicago.

Novick joined the Manhattan project to develop the atom bomb. In the early hours of July 16, 1945, he was awestruck at its initial test in the New Mexico desert. He was shocked when the bomb was used a month later on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. His revulsion at the devastation prompted him to seek a new scientific career.

- AP

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