J. Carson Mark

J. Carson Mark (July 6, 1913 – March 2, 1997) was a Canadian-born American mathematician known especially for his work on developing nuclear weapons for the United States at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Biography

Born on in Lindsay, Ontario, he received a Bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Western Ontario in 1935 and a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1938. From 1938 to 1943, he taught mathematics at the University of Manitoba. From 1943 to 1945, he worked at the Montreal laboratory of the National Research Council of Canada.

Mark joined the Manhattan Project in 1945, and continued to work at Los Alamos after World War II had ended. He became the leader of the Theoretical Division at the laboratory in 1947 under the lab directorship of Norris Bradbury (a position he held until 1973), and oversaw the development of the hydrogen bomb in the 1950s (see Teller-Ulam design for more on the development history).

Mark became a U.S. citizen in the 1950s and died in Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1997 from complications related to a fall.

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