title: Harold A. Knapp
text: # Harold A. Knapp
  
  Harold Anthony Knapp was an American mathematician. He earned a doctorate in mathematics with a minor in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1947. He first worked as an operations analyst within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. He joined the US Atomic Energy Commission in 1955, where he worked within the newly formed Fallout Studies Branch within the Division of Biology and Medicine from 1960 on ; he resigned from the AEC in 1963. He then worked for the Institute for Defense Analyses "which did highly sensitive studies on nuclear warfare for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Defense Nuclear Agency". In 1981, "he joined the Joint Program Office in the Department of Defense, whose innocuous title hid the awesome responsibility of designing and putting into effect a system that would assure the continuity of government during nuclear war."
  
  ## Awards
  
  * Oliver Wendell Holmes Award from the American Civil Liberties Union
  * Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award (March 1989)
  