Did you know that scientists at Iowa State University played a critical role in the in the Manhattan Project during World War II? Indeed, a group of chemists, physicists and metallurgists developed a procedure to purely uranium relatively quickly and cheaply. Heretofore, uranium could only be purified in limited quantities by a very expensive method, and this slowed the effort to study the material and determine the feasibility of building an atomic bomb.

The idea of building an atomic bomb began in earnest when, in the late 1930s, a group of German scientists discovered the process of atomic fission. As European research groups unraveled the mysteries of the atom, the growth of Nazi Germany forced many world-renowned scientists to take refuge in the United States. Fearing Germany's scientific advancements, these men appealed to the Roosevelt administration to support an aggressive program of atomic study at laboratories throughout the United States. In 1940, Roosevelt agreed to support the efforts of designated laboratories in this regard.

Nobel Prize laureate, Arthur Compton directed one such facility at the University of Chicago. In 1941, Compton invited Iowa State chemist Frank Spedding to establish a chemistry division within his Chicago operation to study the character of certain materials. Spedding agreed to join the project, though lobbied to build his branch laboratory in Ames, where Iowa State's facilities and scientists were already gathered.

Materials studies were put on a back burner when Spedding's group turned to a more vexing problem. A shortage of large quantities of pure uranium slowed the work underway in Chicago. In a relatively short order, Spedding's group developed a way to purify uranium in an efficient and affordable fashion. By introducing an electronic charge to a compound of uranium tetrafluoride and calcium, a chemical reaction followed that bonded the calcium and fluoride, thus leaving the uranium pure and accessible. By the war's end, over two million pounds of uranium was produced at Iowa State using this method, the Ames process. Much of this uranium was shipped to Compton's group in Chicago where efforts were underway to build a self-sustaining atomic chain reaction.

Uranium production dominated the work of Spedding's group at Iowa State until 1944 when the Ames process was effectively transferred to industry. For its successes, Iowa State was awarded the coveted Army/Navy flag for excellence in production. After the war, the United States government established several national laboratories to insure America's pre-eminence in atomic research. Often, these laboratories were built upon the foundation created earlier, by the groups working under the Manhattan Project. In this spirit, the federal government designated the Ames Laboratory to be built on the Iowa State campus. And interestingly, the study of materials remains central to its mission.

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