Rector of Imperial College from 1967 to 1973 he took the post over from Sir Owen Saunders who was acting rector from 1966 to 1967 after the death of Sir Patrick Linstead in 1966.
Lord Penny worked initially on the Manhattan Project during WW2 and was a flight observer of the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki. Penney was asked in 1947 to head the team that ultimately produced Britain's first atomic bomb (test) and in 1957 this was successfully carried out, off of the Australian coast (Operation Hurricane).

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