Robert Rathbun Wilson (March 4, 1914 – January 16, 2000) was an American physicist known for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II, as a sculptor, and as an architect of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), where he was the first director from 1967 to 1978.

He subsequently went to Princeton University to work with Henry DeWolf Smyth on electromagnetic separation of the isotopes of uranium.

[4] Wilson entered the University of California, Berkeley, in 1932, and was awarded his Bachelor of Arts (AB) degree cum laude in 1936.

[7] Wilson ran into trouble with Lawrence's harsh frugality while working on his cyclotron and was fired twice from the Radiation Laboratory.

By 1941 the project had produced a device called the "isotron," which, unlike the calutron, used an electrical field to separate the uranium instead of a magnetic one.

[11] When Oppenheimer reorganized the laboratory in August 1944 to focus on the development of an implosion-type nuclear weapon, Wilson became head of R (Research) Division.

In March 1945, R Division acquired the additional responsibility of developing instrumentation for the Trinity nuclear test in July 1945.

News of this met with an icy reception from Major General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project.

In later life, when interviewed in the Oscar-nominated documentary The Day After Trinity (1980), Wilson would say that he should have strongly considered ceasing work on the bomb after the surrender of Germany, and regretted not doing so to some extent.

[15] The petition was carried by Oppenheimer to Washington, D.C., eventually making its way via Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to President Harry S.

[20] Wilson was one of the first physicists to use Monte Carlo methods, which he used to model electron and proton initiated particle showers.

Bucking the trend of the day, Wilson emphasized it had nothing at all to do with national security, rather: It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture...

[22]Thanks to Wilson's talented leadership, a management style very much adopted from Lawrence, the facility was completed on time and under budget.

According to Wilson, he gave Atomic Energy Commission chairman Glenn T. Seaborg his assurance "signed in blood" that he would not exceed the authorized $250 million budget and "would rot in Hell" if he did.

[24] Wilson had studied sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in Italy while on sabbatical in 1961,[21] and he wanted Fermilab to be an appealing place to work, believing that external harmony would encourage internal harmony as well, and labored personally to keep it from looking like a stereotypical "government lab", playing a key role in its design and architecture.

[23] Surrounding the facility was a restored prairie which served as a home to a herd of American Bison that started with Wilson bringing in a bull and four cows in 1969.

[23] Fermilab also celebrates his role as a sculptor, featuring several of his works, including "The Mobius Strip", "The Hyperbolic Obelisk", "Tractricious", and "Broken Symmetry".

[27] Wilson served as the director of Fermilab until 1978, when he resigned in protest against what he considered was inadequate funding by the Federal government.