Dean was appointed by President Harry S. Truman as one of the original Commissioners of the AEC in May 1949 , by which time McMahon had become Senator ( in 1944 ) , author of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 , and chair of the Joint Atomic Energy Committee of Congress . Dean was then appointed as the second Chairman of the AEC beginning in May 1950 , following David Lilienthal , again with McMahon 's backing . As early as 1950 , Dean advocated for the appointment of a Presidential Science Advisor and science advisory task force . Dean served at the time of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 's creation in 1952 . During Dean 's tenure as Chairman , McCarthyism reached its peak . Robert Oppenheimer came under attack by Lewis Strauss , Edward Teller and others for his alleged foot-dragging at Los Alamos . Dean defended Oppenheimer . As Cold War tensions heightened and the Korean War raged on , Dean led a massive industrialization of the United States nuclear facilities . The hydrogen bomb , a nuclear weapon of massive and unprecedented force , was perfected during his tenure as Chairman with the detonation of the Ivy Mike hydrogen bomb , based on Edward Teller 's design in October 1952 . Dean served for a brief period under President Eisenhower as well , staying until the completion of his term on June 30 , 1953
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike
Gordon Dean (lawyer)