Hyman G. Rickover

Hyman G. Rickover was an American naval officer and nuclear engineer known as the father of the nuclear navy. Placed in charge of the U.S. Navy's nuclear propulsion program after the Second World War, he drove the engineering effort that produced USS Nautilus, commissioned in 1954 as the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, and he personally set exacting technical and training standards that shaped the design, construction and safety culture of every subsequent U.S. naval nuclear reactor. His decades-long tenure directing naval reactors, unusual for its length and personal technical control, established an operational safety record that influenced civilian nuclear engineering practice as well.