19 Facts About Joan Hinton

Joan Hinton was a nuclear physicist and one of the few women scientists who worked for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos.

Joan Hinton lived on a dairy farm north of Beijing before her death on June 8,2010.

Joan Hinton's father, Sebastian Hinton, was a lawyer ; her mother, Carmelita Hinton, was an educator and the founder of The Putney School, an independent progressive school in Vermont.

Joan Hinton's great-grandfather was the mathematician George Boole, and her grandfather was the mathematician Charles Howard Hinton.

Joan Hinton's sister, Jean Hinton Rosner, was a civil rights and peace activist.

Joan Hinton studied physics at Bennington College and graduated in 1942 with a bachelor's degree in natural science.

In 1944, Joan Hinton earned a doctorate in physics from University of Wisconsin.

Joan Hinton snuck in to watch the Trinity test and wrote about it:.

Joan Hinton was shocked when the US government, three weeks later, dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Joan Hinton left the Manhattan Project and lobbied the government in Washington to internationalize nuclear power.

In March 1948, Joan Hinton travelled to Shanghai, worked for Soong Ching-ling, the widow of President Sun Yat-sen, and tried to establish contacts with the Chinese communists.

Joan Hinton witnessed the communists gaining control of Beijing in 1949 and moved to Yan'an, where she married Erwin Engst, who had been working in China since 1946.

In October 1952 Joan Hinton went public in Beijing, attending the Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference where she denounced the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

In June 1987, William Hinton went to the town of Dazhai in Shanxi province to observe the changes brought about by the reform policies, and in August 1987, Joan Hinton stayed at Dazhai as well.

Joan Hinton lived alone following the death of her husband in 2003.

Joan Hinton remained active in the small community of expats in Beijing, protesting against the war in Iraq.

In 1949, Joan Hinton married Erwin Engst, a dairy-cattle expert, in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, China.

Joan Hinton had two sons, Bill and Fred Engst and a daughter, Karen Engst.

In 1923 Joan Hinton's father checked himself into a clinic for treatment, but while there he committed suicide.