Georg Robert Döpel (3 December 1895 – 2 December 1982) was a German experimental nuclear physicist. He was a participant in a group known as the "first Uranverein", which was spawned by a meeting conducted by the Reichserziehungsministerium, in April 1939, to discuss the potential of a sustained nuclear reaction. He worked under Werner Heisenberg at the University of Leipzig, and he conducted experiments on spherical layers of uranium oxide surrounded by heavy water. He was a contributor to the German nuclear weapon project (Uranprojekt). In 1945, he was sent to Russia to work on the Soviet atomic bomb project. He returned to Germany in 1957, and he became professor of applied physics and director of the Institut für Angewandte Physik at the Hochschule für Elektrotechnik, now Technische Universität, in Ilmenau (Thuringia). Early life Döpel was born in Neustadt. From 1919 to 1924, he attended the University of Leipzig, the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). He received his doctorate, in 1924, under the Physics Nobel Laureate Wilhelm Wien at LMU. Career In Germany After receipt of his doctorate, Döpel became Robert W. Pohl's teaching assistant at the University of Göttingen. He also worked with the Physics Nobel Laureate Johannes Stark on canal rays, at the private laboratory of Rudolf Freihern von Hirsch zu Planegg, just west of Munich. In 1929, Döpel became a teaching assistant at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, and in 1932 he became a privatdozent there. In 1939, Döpel became an extraordinarius professor at the University of Leipzig, where he was a colleague of Werner Heisenberg. At some point, Döpel succeeded Fritz Kirchner as professor of radiation physics. On 22 April 1939, after hearing a paper by Wilhelm Hanle on the use of uranium fission in a uranmaschine (uranium machine, i.e., nuclear reactor), Georg Joos, along with Hanle, notified Wilhelm Dames, at the Reichserziehungsministerium (REM, Reich Ministry of Education), of potential military applications of nuclear energy. Just seven days later, a group, organized by Dames, met at the REM to discuss the potential of a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Their Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Kernphysik was known informally as the first Uranverein (Uranium Club) and included the physicists Walther Bothe, Wilhelm Hanle, his friend Robert Döpel, Hans Geiger, Wolfgang Gentner, Gerhard Hoffmann, and Joos. Informal work began at the University of Göttingen by Joos, Hanle, and their colleague Reinhold Mannkopff. Their work was discontinued