Menelaos D. Hassialis; Professor, Manhattan Project Consultant

Menelaos D. Hassialis, 85, a professor of mining at Columbia University and a consultant on the Manhattan Project. Hassialis’ work on the secret development of the atomic bomb focused on how to make alloys containing uranium by machine. He received two U.S. patents on that work. In 1950, he directed the federal government’s successful Atomic Energy Project for the Recovery of Uranium, which attempted to recover uranium oxide from ores as cheaply as possible. Hassialis represented the United States at the Geneva conferences on finding peaceful uses for atomic energy and pioneered the recovery of petroleum from oil shale. He joined the Columbia faculty in 1937 and retired in 1978. In Ridgewood, N.J. on March 16.