---
category: "Scientists & Researchers"
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Physicist
  - Israel
summary: "American nuclear weapons designer at Los Alamos for over twenty years who acknowledged close associations with Israeli physicists from the Weizmann Institute."
born: 1920-02-15
died: 2012-04-20
location: "Worcester, Massachusetts"
---

George A. Cowan was an American scientist who spent more than twenty years designing nuclear weapons at [[Los Alamos]]. He acknowledged that there was always a close association with Israeli physicists from the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]], who visited the labs. Cowan believed that the Israelis were smart enough to do their own research and that the need for secret information was largely promoted by spy novelists.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 15.