Allan Nunn May
E665460
Allan Nunn May was a British physicist who became one of the first and most significant atomic spies, passing nuclear secrets from the UK to the Soviet Union during and after World War II.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Allan Nunn May canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7433250 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Allan Nunn May Context triple: [Soviet atomic bomb project (indirectly, via espionage), notableSpy, Allan Nunn May]
-
A.
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering was an American astronomer known for his discoveries of planetary satellites and contributions to lunar and planetary observation.
-
B.
Arthur A. Shurcliff
Arthur A. Shurcliff was a prominent early 20th-century American landscape architect known for his work on major estates and historic restoration projects, including significant contributions to Colonial Revival design.
-
C.
Edgar Odell Lovett
Edgar Odell Lovett was an American mathematician and educator best known as the founding president of Rice University, where he played a central role in shaping the institution’s early development.
-
D.
George C. Powell
George C. Powell was the father of Lewis Powell, one of the conspirators involved in the assassination plot against U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
-
E.
Louis D. Lighton
Louis D. Lighton was an American film producer active during Hollywood’s studio era, known for overseeing a range of major motion pictures in the 1920s and 1930s.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Allan Nunn May Target entity description: Allan Nunn May was a British physicist who became one of the first and most significant atomic spies, passing nuclear secrets from the UK to the Soviet Union during and after World War II.
-
A.
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering was an American astronomer known for his discoveries of planetary satellites and contributions to lunar and planetary observation.
-
B.
Arthur A. Shurcliff
Arthur A. Shurcliff was a prominent early 20th-century American landscape architect known for his work on major estates and historic restoration projects, including significant contributions to Colonial Revival design.
-
C.
Edgar Odell Lovett
Edgar Odell Lovett was an American mathematician and educator best known as the founding president of Rice University, where he played a central role in shaping the institution’s early development.
-
D.
George C. Powell
George C. Powell was the father of Lewis Powell, one of the conspirators involved in the assassination plot against U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
-
E.
Louis D. Lighton
Louis D. Lighton was an American film producer active during Hollywood’s studio era, known for overseeing a range of major motion pictures in the 1920s and 1930s.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
atomic spy
ⓘ
human ⓘ physicist ⓘ spy ⓘ |
| charge | breach of the Official Secrets Act ⓘ |
| convictedOf |
espionage
ⓘ
violating the British Official Secrets Act ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| describedBySource |
British government records
ⓘ
histories of nuclear espionage ⓘ |
| educatedAt | King’s College London ⓘ |
| employer |
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
ⓘ
King’s College London ⓘ Montreal Laboratory ⓘ Tube Alloys project ⓘ
linked to:
Tube Alloys programme
University of Birmingham ⓘ |
| familyName | May ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
nuclear physics
ⓘ
physics ⓘ |
| givenName | Allan ⓘ |
| hasInfluenced | Soviet atomic bomb project ⓘ |
| ideology | communism ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| memberOf | Communist Party of Great Britain ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being one of the first major atomic spies
ⓘ
passing information on nuclear reactor design to the Soviet Union ⓘ passing information on plutonium production to the Soviet Union ⓘ |
| notableWork | passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union ⓘ |
| occupation |
physicist
ⓘ
spy ⓘ university lecturer ⓘ |
| participantIn |
Manhattan Project (via British-Canadian work)
ⓘ
linked to:
Tube Alloys programme
Tube Alloys ⓘ
linked to:
Tube Alloys programme
World War II ⓘ |
| partOf | early Cold War espionage cases ⓘ |
| sexOrGender | male ⓘ |
| significantEvent |
arrest for espionage in the United Kingdom
ⓘ
imprisonment in the United Kingdom ⓘ trial for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union ⓘ |
| spiedFor | Soviet Union ⓘ |
| workLocation |
Canada
ⓘ
United Kingdom ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Allan Nunn May Description of subject: Allan Nunn May was a British physicist who became one of the first and most significant atomic spies, passing nuclear secrets from the UK to the Soviet Union during and after World War II.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.