Born May 31, 1918 in Philadelphia, Lloyd Albert Quarterman, a
chemist, was one of the few African American scientists and
technicians to work on the Manhattan Project, the top secret
effort to design and build the atomic bomb during World War II.
Quarterman developed an interest in chemistry from a young age
partly by using toy chemistry sets his parents gave him. He
attended St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina
where he developed a reputation as a scholar and star football
player. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from St.
Augustine’s in 1943, he was quickly recruited by the War
Department to work on the Manhattan Project. Though he was only
a junior chemist on the project, Quarterman had the opportunity
to work closely with Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago
and with Albert Einstein at Columbia University. Quarterman was
a member of the team of scientists who isolated the isotope of
uranium (U 238) necessary for the fission process, which was
essential to the creation of the atom bo