Sir William Penney, nuclear physicist, 1985. Australian High Commission, London, Press conference. nuclear physicist who led development of the British atomic bomb, with a map of Australia where the bombs were detonated. He proposed the mathematical work to study the damage effects of nuclear weapons during his work on The Manhattan Project. Penney went to Washington for a top secret committee target selection meeting. He recommended Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of the hills surrounding the target which he said would create maximum devastation. Penney was a member of the team of scientists and military analysts who entered Hiroshima and Nagasaki following the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945 to assess the effects of nuclear weapons.
