Winnipeg Free Press

Nominated by: harry

Why Louis Slotin should be a Great Manitoban:

Claim to fame: Nuclear physicist on Manhattan project, gave life to save others in nuclear accident

Manitoba dosage: 3.5

Fast Facts: Prodigy who enrolled at University of Manitoba at age 16...In 1946, while a member of the Manhattan Project in New Mexico, Slotin was conducting a nuclear experiment when it went horribly wrong. Witnesses say Slotin deliberately allowed his body to absorb a lethal dose of plutonium to save the lives of seven other scientists in the room...3,000 people turned up for his funeral in Winnipeg.

8 Comments

• He was very selfless

  Posted by: David Chartrand | 2008-06-23 07:41:36

• A brilliant man whose family lives in the city to this day.

  Posted by: Hadass Eviatar | 2008-06-25 19:52:58

• a true hero...he made a sacrafice to help save the world

  Posted by: harry | 2008-06-30 06:36:55

• Depending on whether you focus on Slotin's action following the lab accident or the fact that he continued with his experiments despite warnings from, among other colleagues, Enrico Fermi that he was flirting with disaster, this man is either a hero or something decidedly different.

  Posted by: lynn brown | 2008-07-08 06:37:47

• The CBC has his story wrong.He knew that enriched uranium had a critical mass when a chain reaction would begin. So at the end of the day when everyone was told to store their uranium in the same shielded vessel, he reached in and separated the mass as it was beginning to react. This critical mass was a "State Secret" for many years.

  Posted by: PhilG | 2008-07-08 07:17:40

• It is very unfortunate that a forum like this will bring out the worst in people, that they would take the time to insult a great man who gave his life for new scientific discoveries. The atomic bomb was a necessary evil, and without Louis Slotins help, the world would be a very different place today. To imply a "state secret", a government conspiracy involved in the experiment which went horribly wrong, an experiment to which Slotin gave his life, and saved the lives of 7 others, is beneath the memory of Louis Slotin shared by his family members, friends, and colleagues. I have a great amount of respect for this man, and will always look up to him.

  Posted by: A | 2008-07-17 07:36:50

• Let's nominate a weapons maker as "Greatest Manitoban". Maybe they'll name a radioactive hole in the ground for him one day. He's got blood on his hands.

  Posted by: Ron | 2008-07-25 19:37:58

• Slotin was a brilliant scientist. Just like others he had to leave Canada to make his mark. Regardless of personal views regarding the Bomb, I think Slotin would be a worthy "Greatest Manitoban".

  Posted by: Dave | 2008-09-02 13:50:01

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