Weiss, Arthur

Arthur Weiss was born in Philadelphia in 1925.  Growing up against the backdrop of war, Arthur was singled out by the military for his mathematical prowess.  The military was grooming him for a role in the Manhattan Project, but as Arthur recalls, there was a surfeit of physicists by 1945, and with the war winding down, the army sent him to medical school, where his interests eventually took him in the direction of oncology.  Given his talents and the winding down of the war, Arthur did not see active service in World War Two.  He would in fact play a greater role in the emerging Cold War, where the nuclear threat and his specialization in oncology would find a common ground.  Arthur spent a number of years in the Office of Naval Research, where he was involved in looking at radiation levels in nuclear submarines, and in helping the military in some of the scenarios being developed for possible nuclear conflict.  When Arthur left the military, he remained connected to the public sector, involved in research in the emerging and dynamic field of oncology and medical research.

Arthur Weiss presently lives in Falmouth, Maine, where he was interviewed for this project in Agust 2015 by Scott Masters.