George Thomas Reynolds (May 27, 1917 – April 19, 2005) was an American physicist best known for his accomplishments in particle physics, biophysics and environmental science.

He earned his PhD in 1943 under the supervision of Walker Bleakney, writing his thesis "Studies in the production, propagation, and interactions of shock waves".

[3][4][5] World War II was raging at this time, and someone with a doctorate in such a topic area was highly sought after by the wartime Manhattan Project, but Reynolds turned down an offer to join it.

[1][6] Instead of the seafaring assignment he hoped for, Reynolds was sent to the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory to assist George Kistiakowsky in the design of the explosive lenses required by the implosion-type nuclear weapon.

[7] Reynolds was one of the naval officers who was sent to investigate the Port Chicago disaster, in which an ammunition ship had blown up in the harbor.

[4] Reynolds was one of several researchers who determined that an atomic bomb would do maximum damage if detonated in the air rather than at ground level.

[9] He served on Tinian, where the worked with the X-Unit Section, which was responsible for the Fat Man bomb's firing unit.

[13] Reynolds later hired Sam Treiman, Giorgio Salvini, Riccardo Giacconi, Val Fitch and Jim Cronin.

His reputation for spotting and hiring talent was assured when Giacconi, Fitch and Cronin won Nobel Prizes.

[4] For his cosmic ray research, Reynolds attempted to grow large organic crystal scintillators to use as ionized particle detectors.

Under his leadership, it investigated a number of unusual inter-disciplinary topics, such as energy conservation in buildings, indoor air quality, the relationship between nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and the decision-making process in environmental issues [5] Although most of his career was at Princeton, he spent some time in England, where was a Churchill Fellow at Cambridge University in 1973 and 1974.