Hugh Bradner Papers, 1935-1998 (SMC 16)

Hugh Bradner (1915-2008) was a physicist who worked for the Manhattan Project and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining the SIO Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP) as a geophysicist. He received his B.A. from Miami University in 1937 and graduated from Caltech with a Ph.D. in Physics in 1941.

Bradner worked as a researcher for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory between 1941 and 1943 studying the design of magnetic naval mines. He was then recruited by Robert Oppenheimer to work on the development of explosive detonators for the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory until 1946. After World War II, he accepted a position at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he studied high-energy accelerators, nuclear particles detectors and high-energy particular physics from 1946 to 1961. During this time he was responsible for developing and directing data reduction systems for hydrogen bubble chambers, pioneered proton-neutron polarization experiments, and was one of the first scientists to observe the catalysis of a muon-catalyzed fusion. In 1951 Bradner served as co-director for the Operation Greenhouse nuclear test series on the islands of the Enewetak Atoll.

During his tenure at the University of California, Bradner experimented with early wet suit design. He was particularly concerned with the discomfort and unreliability of existing "dry suits" fabricated from heavy rubberized cloth, under which divers had to wear woolen undergarments to keep warm. Seeking to improve the diving attire of Navy frogmen, Bradner devoted his free time in the spring of 1951 to research on existing wet suit models. After testing various materials, he sent his concept designs to fellow Berkeley physicist Lauriston C. Marshall, who was involved with the National Research Council Panel on Underwater Swimmers. Bradner contended that wet suits need not be watertight "dry suits" if insulation were adequately achieved by the thermal qualities of unicellular material; furthermore, the use of unicellular foam rubber afforded divers increased protection from underwater shock waves. Collaborating with a group of engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, Bradner became the first person to use neoprene in the creation of wet suits. However, he did not pursue commercial manufacture and the U.S. Navy ultimately rejected his design in 1957, citing existing experiments using unicellular material for the application of diving "underwear."

In 1961 Bradner accepted a position at UC San Diego, where he lectured as Professor of Engineering Physics and Geophysics and worked as Research Physicist for the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). His research interests included ocean-bottom seismology, high energy fundamental particle physics and neutrino physics. Bradner also served as member of the Deep Muon and Neutrino Detection (DUMAND) Steering Committee, which oversaw a proposed deep ocean astronomy project to install an underwater neutrino telescope in the Pacific Ocean in the late 1970s. Bradner retired in 1980.