Scientist Krikorian dies:
Scientist Nerses “Krik” Krikorian, who was born a refugee and later became a legend in the once-secret New Mexico City where the atomic bomb was developed, has died. He was 97.
Officials at Los Alamos National Laboratory confirmed that Krikorian died Wednesday at his home in Los Alamos, the mountain town he had called home for more than 70 years.
Krikorian was born on a Turkish roadside in 1921 as his parents were trying to flee the aftermath of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks more than a century ago. With nothing but the clothes on their backs, the family moved around for the next four years and eventually found their way to the United States.
Krikorian spoke little English when they first arrived but went on to graduate with honors from college with a chemistry degree and landed a job working in a lab that made highly enriched uranium. It wasn’t until later that Krikorian learned that work was part of the top-secret Manhattan Project.
He later went to work directly for Los Alamos lab. He said in an interview for a lab profile that he had never been west of Detroit and made the long drive to New Mexico in a 1936 Chevy convertible. He met his wife in Los Alamos.
In a career that spanned more than four decades, he worked with uranium and later with Project Rover in the 1950s to develop a nuclear-thermal rocket for space applications. He held six patents and published numerous assessments before becoming head of security for an intelligence unit. He also won accolades for his work.
In a memo to employees this week, lab Director Terry Wallace described Krikorian as “a giant” in the world of national security science and in the Los Alamos community. (AP)