Sargent returned to Canada , where he became a lecturer and then an assistant professor at Queen 's University . In 1941 , he joined George Laurence of the National Research Council ( NRC ) in Ottawa to investigate nuclear energy , writing a report on " Uranium Fission in a Bulk of Carbon and Uranium Oxide " . In 1943 , he took a leave of absence from Queen 's University to join the Anglo-Canadian Montreal Laboratory , which subsequently became part of the Manhattan Project . He became the head of its nuclear physics branch in 1945 , and , after the laboratory moved to the Chalk River Laboratories in 1946 , of the physics division in 1951 . As such , he was involved in the design of the first Canadian nuclear reactors . For his wartime activities , Sargent was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1946 . He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal in 1953
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
Bernice Weldon Sargent