William Rudolph Kanne
William Rudolph Kanne (7 July 1913 – 24 October 1985), was a physicist, inventor and pioneer in the field of gas flow through ionization detectors, a member of the group responsible for the first self-sustained nuclear chain fission reaction at Staggs Field in Chicago, and participated in the Manhattan Project at the Chicago, Oak Ridge and Hanford sites. Biography In 1913, Kanne was born in Baltimore, Maryland to William G. and Adele Bianka Kanne née Thienemann. His father was born in Germany and his mother was born in Maryland. In 1937, he married Elizabeth Mueller. The couple moved to Madison, Wisconsin to accept positions at the University of Wisconsin. According to the 1940 U.S. Census, Kanne worked as a physics instructor for a state university and his wife Elizabeth worked as a substitute teacher at a graduate school in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1931, Elizabeth "Lib" Mueller graduated at the top of her class from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland and then attended Stanford University where she earned a master's degree in bacteriology. Kanne died at home of intestinal cancer in 1985 at Los Gatos, California. Kanne was buried at Loudon Park Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. Education In 1937, Kanne earned