Bernard Waldman was an American physicist active during WWII. He racked up some impressive credentials, including attendance at New York University. Waldman later worked at University of Notre Dame beginning in 1938. He gained further experience working in the U.S. Navy as an engineering officer. During the course of that work, he led a group whose job it was to measure the blasts of nuclear tests.
Whatever recognition Waldman may have earned based on his own intelligence and skills, he was still human, and therefore prone to error. Just take for example his role in the bombing of Hiroshima in the summer of 1945.
The plan was to have Waldman be on an observational aircraft to capture the bombing. He was armed with a camera with six seconds of film. The mission with which he was charged was simply to record the explosion. When the actual moment arrived, Waldman did not remember to open the camera shutter, and so the film was not exposed.
While his forgetfulness may have been embarrassing, Waldman continued to pursue science after WWII. He was able to become an assistant professor and was at one point in charge of a particle accelerator, just to name a couple of his achievements.
