This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

David Charles Hahn (born October 30, 1976), also called the "Radioactive Boy Scout" or the "Nuclear Boy Scout", is an American who attempted to build a homemade breeder nuclear reactor in 1994, at age 17. A scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Hahn conducted his experiments in secret in a backyard shed at his mother's house in Commerce Township, Michigan. While his reactor never reached critical mass, Hahn attracted the attention of local police who found radioactive materials in the trunk of his car. His mother's property was cleaned up by the Environmental Protection Agency ten months later as a Superfund cleanup site. Hahn attained Eagle Scout rank in the Boy Scouts of America shortly after his reactor was dismantled.^[1]

While the incident was not widely publicized initially, it became better known following a 1998 Harper's article by journalist Ken Silverstein. Hahn is also the eponymous subject of Silverstein's 2004 book, The Radioactive Boy Scout.

Creation of the reactor[link]

Hahn is an Eagle Scout who received a merit badge in Atomic Energy and spent years tinkering with basement chemistry which sometimes resulted in small explosions and other mishaps. He was inspired in part by reading The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, and tried to collect samples of every element in the periodic table, including the radioactive ones. Hahn diligently amassed this radioactive material by collecting small amounts from household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks and tritium (as neutron moderator) from gunsights. His "reactor" was a bored-out block of lead, and he used lithium from $1,000 worth of purchased^[2] batteries to purify the thorium ash using a Bunsen burner.^[1]

Hahn posed as an adult scientist or professor to gain the trust of many professionals in letters, despite the presence of misspellings and obvious errors in his letters to them. Hahn ultimately hoped to create a breeder reactor, using low-level isotopes to transform samples of thorium and uranium into fissionable isotopes.^[3]

Although his homemade reactor never achieved critical mass, it ended up emitting dangerous levels of radioactivity, likely well over 1,000 times normal background radiation. Alarmed, Hahn began to dismantle his experiments, but a chance encounter with police led to the discovery of his activities, which triggered a Federal Radiological Emergency Response involving the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. On June 26, 1995 the United States Environmental Protection Agency, having designated Hahn's mother's property as a Superfund hazardous materials cleanup site, dismantled the shed and its contents and buried them as low-level radioactive waste in Utah. Hahn refused medical evaluation for radiation exposure.^[2]

Career[link]

After dropping out of community college, Hahn joined the Navy, assigned to the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise as an undesignated seaman.^[2]

Hahn had hoped to pursue a nuclear specialist career. EPA scientists believe that Hahn may have exceeded the lifetime dosage for thorium exposure, but he refused their recommendation that he be examined at the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Generating Station.^[2]

In culture[link]

The incident received scant media attention at the time, but was widely disseminated after writer Ken Silverstein published an article about the incident in Harper's Magazine in 1998.^[2] In 2004 he expanded it into a book, The Radioactive Boy Scout.

In the CSI: NY episode "Page Turner" the character Lawrence Wagner is based on David Hahn.^[4]

A television documentary, The Nuclear Boyscout, aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom in 2003.^[5] In it, Hahn reenacted some of his methods for the camera. Though slated to air on the Discovery Channel, the program has not yet been broadcast in the United States.

An item in the 1999 University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt instructs the participant to build "a breeder reactor ... in a shed."^[6] Notably, this item was successfully completed.^[7]

The nuclear expert and anarchist villain Derek Frost from the film Source Code was largely inspired by David Hahn.

2007 arrest[link]

On August 1, 2007, Hahn was arrested in Clinton Township, Michigan for larceny, in relation to a matter involving several smoke detectors, allegedly removed from the halls of his apartment building. In his mug shot, his face is covered with sores which investigators claim are possibly from exposure to radioactive materials.^[8] During a Circuit Court hearing, Hahn pleaded guilty to attempted larceny of a building. The court’s online docket said prosecutors recommended that he be sentenced to time served and enter an inpatient treatment facility. Under terms of the plea, the original charge of larceny of a building would be dismissed at sentencing, scheduled for October 4.^[9] He was sentenced to 90 days in jail for attempted larceny. Court records stated that his sentence would be delayed by six months while Hahn underwent treatment for radiation exposure.^[10]

Further reading[link]

• Ghiorso, Albert. Book review of The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening True Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor.^[11] August 9, 2004, issue of Chemical and Engineering News (pp. 36–37). An analysis is given of some of Hahn's work by Ghiorso, who has been involved in the discovery of about a dozen transuranium elements.

References[link]

External links[link]

• 'The Nuclear Boyscout' from Channel 4
• 'The nuclear merit badge' — Christian Science Monitor
• Smoke Detectors and a Radioactive Boyscout
• The Radioactive Boy Scout

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since August 2011. It relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Tagged since August 2011. Its use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Tagged since August 2010. It may contain original research. Tagged since August 2011. It may contain improper references to self-published sources. Tagged since August 2011.

David Olson Ulrich (born 1953) is a university professor, author, speaker, management coach, and management consultant. Ulrich is a professor of business at the Ross School of Business,^[1] University of Michigan and co-founder of The RBL Group.<.^[2] He has written 23 books covering topics in human resources and leadership, including his latest book, The Why of Work [1]. Ulrich is currently on the Board of Directors for Herman Miller, a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources, and is on the Board of Trustees of Southern Virginia University.^[3]

Dave Ulrich has been ranked the #1 Management Educator & Guru by BusinessWeek ^[4] , selected by Fast Company^[5] as one of the 10 most innovative and creative leaders, and named the most influential person in HR by HR Magazine for three years.

Early life and work[link]

Ulrich was born in the small town of Ely, Nevada, but grew up in Oregon. His father worked as a forester building campgrounds, then transferred in order to direct social programs for Job Corps. His mother spent time in church and community service. From his parents, he learned the importance of service and the value of hard work. The Ulrich family lived subsequently in Kansas City, Missouri, where he attended high school.

Ulrich attended Brigham Young University where he completed his undergraduate degree in University Studies in five semesters and began graduate school in Organizational Behavior. He completed his doctorate in business at UCLA.^{[citation needed]}

In 1982, Ulrich began teaching at the University of Michigan where he taught in the MBA program and in executive education. He currently teaches full time in Executive Education.

Research and career[link]

Dave Ulrich’s professional focus has addressed questions on how organizations add value to customers and investors through both leadership and strategic human resource practices. In the human resource area, he and his colleagues have worked to redefine and upgrade HR. With his colleagues Wayne Brockbank and Jon Younger, Ulrich has articulated how the modern HR organization can be organized into shared services, centers of expertise, and business partners.^[6] He has also co-directed research on over 40,000 respondents about the competencies required for successful HR professionals;^[7] in addition, he has helped shape thinking on how to transform HR practices so that they are aligned to customer needs and integrated around organization capabilities.^[8] In the leadership area, Norm Smallwood and Ulrich have worked to focus on the outcomes of effective leadership;^[9] they have also shown how leadership will increase customer share by creating a leadership brand within the company.^[10] Their work also illustrates that investing in leadership will increase shareholder value.^[11] Their work also synthesizes the thicket of leadership competency models into a unified view of leadership.^[12] Their current work attempts to look at leadership through the eyes and expectations of investors.

Bibliography[link]

• The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win, with Wendy Ulrich 2010 (ISBN 9780071739351).
• HR Transformation: Building Human Resources from the Outside In, with Justin Allen, Wayne Brockbank, Jon Younger, and Mark Nyman, 2009 (ISBN 9780071638708).
• HR Competencies: Mastery at the Intersection of People and Business, with Wayne Brockbank, Dani Johnson, Kurt Sandholtz, and Jon Younger, 2008 (ISBN 9781586441135).
• Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance And Build Lasting Value with Norm Smallwood, published September 2007 (ISBN 9781422110300).
• FYI for Strategic Effectiveness: Aligning People and Operational Practices to Strategy with Robert W. Eichinger and Kim E. Ruyle, published January 2007 (ISBN 1933578068).
• 50 More Things You Need to Know (Volume 2): The Science behind Best People Practices for Managers and HR Professionals with Robert W. Eichinger, John Kulas, and Ken De Meuse, published January 2007 (ISBN 1933578084).
• How Leaders Build Value: Using People, Organization and Other Intangibles to Get Bottom-Line Results with Norm Smallwood, published March 2006 (ISBN 047176079X).
• The HR Value Proposition with Wayne Brockbank, published June 2005 (ISBN 1591397073).
• Future of Human Resource Management: 64 Thought Leaders Explore the Critical HR Issues of Today and Tomorrow with Michael Losey and Sue Meisinger, published June 2005 (ISBN 0471677914).
• The Change Champion's Fieldguide: Strategies and Tools for Leading Change in Your Organization with Louis Carter, Marshall Goldsmith, Jim Bolt, and Norm Smallwood, published June 2003 (ISBN 0974038806).
• Why the Bottom Line Isn't: How to Build Value Through People and Organization with Norm Smallwood, published April 2003 (ISBN 047144510X).
• Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organization Change: How the Best Companies Ensure Meaningful Change and Sustainable Leadership with Louis Carter and Marshall Goldsmith, published December 2004 (ISBN 0787976253).
• Human Resources Business Process Outsourcing: Transforming How HR Gets Its Work Done with Edward E. Lawler, Jac Fitz-enz, James Madden, and Regina Maruca, published August 2004 (ISBN 0787971634).
• 100 Things You Need to Know: Best Practices for Managers and HR with Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger, published January 2004 (ISBN 0974589209).
• GE Workout with Steve Kerr and Ron Ashkenas, published March 2002 (ISBN 0071384162).
• HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy, and Performance with Brian Becker and Mark Huselid, published January 2001 (ISBN 1578511364).
• Results Based Leadership: How Leaders Build the Business and Improve the Bottom Line with Norm Smallwood and Jack Zenger, published December 2000 (ISBN 9781578513192).
• Organizational Learning Capability: Generating and Generalizing Ideas with Impact with Arthur K. Yeung, Stephen W. Nason, Mary A. Von Glinow, published January 1999 (ISBN 0195102045).
• Delivering Results: A New Mandate for Human Resource Professionals, January 1998 (ISBN 0875848699).
• Tomorrow's HR Management: 48 Thought Leaders Call for Change with Michael R. Losey and Gerry Lake, published September 1997 (ISBN 0471197149).
• Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results, published January 1997 (ISBN 0875847196).
• The Boundaryless Organization: Breaking the Chains of Organization Structure with Ron Ashkenas, Steve Kerr, and Todd Jick, published September 1995 (ISBN 078790113X).
• Organizational Capability: Competing from the Inside Out with Dale Lake, published September 1990 (ISBN 0471618071).

Notes[link]

References[link]

• New Jersey Human Resource Planning Group
• Association of Knowledgework
• University of Michigan
• Personnel Today
• The Why of Work

External links[link]

• Daveulrich.com