---
category: "Nuclear Scientists & Programs"
tags:
  - Person
  - Nuclear
  - Physicist
  - Israel
summary: "Hans Bethe was a German-American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967."
born: 1906-07-02
died: 2005-03-06
location: "Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine (now France)"
---

Hans Bethe was a German-American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967. He helped design the first American nuclear and thermonuclear weapons. Bethe recalled three visits to the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] where his hosts would "take me anywhere and discuss anything with me." However, they never offered to take him to [[Dimona]], which Bethe found significant, as he was interested in nuclear power reactors.[^1]

### Footnotes

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