Lehigh’s eighth president helped develop the atomic bomb.

Martin Dewey Whitaker received a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest, a master's from the University of North Carolina and a Ph.D. from New York University, where he also served as faculty and chair of the physics department. 

In 1943, Whitaker studied nuclear technology under Enrico Fermi at The Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. He then directed the design and construction of Clinton Laboratories (later known as Oak Ridge National Laboratories) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where scientists tested and developed plutonium for use in the atomic bomb. In 1946, Whitaker became president of Lehigh University.

Under Whitaker, Lehigh's assets nearly tripled, its endowment more than doubled and the Dravo House and McClintic-Marshall House residence halls were built. The Centennial development program raised more than $22 million for faculty salaries and construction that later included Whitaker Laboratory.

Whitaker died in office in 1960.