ESU Scientist L. Worth Seagondollar Included on Sesquicentennial List

EMPORIA, KS (03/24/2011)(readMedia)-- A Kansan with ties to Emporia State who worked on the Manhattan Project is among 150 Kansas scientists, engineers and inventors selected by the Ad Astra Kansas Initiative.

Physicist L. Worth Seagondollar was born in Hoisington and raised in Emporia. He earned a physics degree from Kansas State Teachers College (now ESU) in 1941. During World War II, Seagondollar worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on the secret Manhattan Project that eventually developed the atom bomb that ended the war.

At Los Alamos, Seagondollar helped figure out how much plutonium was needed for an atomic explosion. He went on to teach at The University of Kansas, where he built the first particle accelerator, and North Carolina State University.

Through 2011, Ad Astra is releasing a group of recognized scientists each month as a way to inspire Kansas youths in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

The Ad Astra Kansas Initiative is a 10-year old grassroots organization with the purpose of celebrating science in Kansas; also, with the purpose of reminding Kansans that the state motto is as current in Kansas today as it was 150 years ago.

For more information or to download trading cards for each scientist, go to www.adastra-ks.org.

-ESU-