Thomas Neff
{{Short description|American physicist (1943–2024)}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Thomas Neff
|birth_name = Thomas Lee Neff
|birth_date = {{birth date|1943|09|25}}
|birth_place = Lake Oswego, Oregon, U.S.
|death_date = {{death date and age|2024|07|11|1943|09|25}}
|death_place =
|occupation = Physicist
|alma mater = Stanford University
}}
Thomas Lee Neff{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/28/science/thomas-l-neffs-idea-turned-russian-warheads-into-american-electricity.html|title=From Warheads to Cheap Energy|first=William J.|last=Broad|work=The New York Times|date=January 28, 2014|access-date=July 20, 2024}} (September 25, 1943 – July 11, 2024) was an American physicist. He played a major role in the Megatons to Megawatts Program that dismantled thousands of nuclear warheads.
Life and career
Neff was born in Lake Oswego, Oregon on September 25, 1943.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/07/23/thomas-neff-dead/ Thomas Neff, who helped turn Soviet nukes into electricity, dies at 80] Washington Post{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/20/world/europe/thomas-l-neff-dead.html|title=Thomas Neff, Who Turned Soviet Warheads Into Electricity, Dies at 80|work=The New York Times|date=July 20, 2024|access-date=July 20, 2024|first=William J.|last=Broad}} He attended Stanford University.
As a post-doc, he was an assistant to American Physical Society President Wolfgang "Pief" Panofsky and helped write legislation that created the US Department of Energy.{{cite web |last1=Lott |first1=Jeffery |title=The Power of a Transformative Idea |url=https://www.lclark.edu/live/news/28020-the-power-of-a-transformative-idea |website=Lewis and Clark University |access-date=29 July 2024}} He went on to become a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/359157238/|title=Agreement enriches U.S., Russia: Uranium pact turns nuclear swords into plowshares|work=The Courier|location=Waterloo, Iowa|date=October 27, 1992|access-date=July 20, 2024|page=29|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Closed access}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/775198285/|title=Brilliant idea serves Russia and U.S.|work=The Knoxville News-Sentinel|location=Knoxville, Tennessee|date=November 1, 1992|access-date=July 20, 2024|page=69|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Closed access}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/1001659688/|title=Uranium agreement could be first step toward a safer planet|work=The Orange Leader|location=Orange, Texas|date=November 21, 1992|access-date=July 20, 2024|page=4|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Closed access}} during the 1990s.
Neff is credited with dreaming up the Megatons to Megawatts Program and selling the idea to the governments of the USA and post-Soviet Russia. Under the program, Russia dismantled many of its nuclear warheads and sold the diluted uranium to the USA to power nuclear reactors. The program solved the problem of how to shrink the USSR's large nuclear weapons stockpile and keep weapons-grade uranium from being sold to America's enemies.
He was a fellow of the American Physical Society.{{Cite web|url=https://obits.concordfuneral.com/dr-thomas-neff|title=Dr. Thomas L. Neff|work=Concord Funeral Home|access-date=July 20, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240720192342/https://obits.concordfuneral.com/dr-thomas-neff#selection-415.0-415.18|archive-date=July 20, 2024|url-status=live|via=archive.today}} He died on July 11, 2024, at the age of 80.
References
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Category:People from Lake Oswego, Oregon
Category:20th-century American physicists
Category:Stanford University alumni
Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society
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