Manhattan Project scientist dies
Rose A. Carney, who as a Chicago graduate student worked on the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of the atomic bomb, has died at the age of 86.
"She was at the University of Chicago as a research assistant in the instruments division," her friend Ralph Meeker told the Chicago Sun-Times. "She was part of the team responsible for the instrumentation used to make measurements of sustained nuclear reactions."
"When I talked with her about it she downplayed what she did and her small contributions to ... a fairly substantial project," he said.
Carney died last week at Villa St. Benedict in Lisle, the Sun-Times reported.
She was the former head of the math department and natural sciences division at St. Procopius College, now Benedictine University. When she retired, students and faculty set up scholarships in her honor, the newspaper said.
The Sun-Times said Carney was devoted to encouraging young women to enter the fields of math and science.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International