The Ames Connection to WWII’s Manhattan Project

Annual Lecture Series

Speaker: Kathy Svec, daughter of a Project researcher

The desperate, top-secret race during World War II to master the military technology of nuclear fission before Nazi Germany played out in 32 sites across the U.S. and Canada. The story of how Ames became one of these sites will be told by the speaker, whose father, Harry J. Svec, was pulled into the research while a graduate student in Chemistry at Iowa State.  The role that small group of scientists at a Midwest college played was critical to the timing and success of the Project.

2026 Lecture Series presented in partnership by Ames History Museum and Ames Public Library.