 He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School in 1950, and that year joined the Atomic Energy Commission as a chemical engineer at its Chicago Operations Office.He rose to become its Assistant manager for Technical Operations, overseeing the development of nuclear reactors for nuclear power plants.On August 29, 1960, NASA created the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office (SNPO) to oversee the joint NASA-AEC Project Rover, which aimed to develop a nuclear thermal rocket engine.