:Lawrence E. Glendenin
{{short description|American chemist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Lawrence E. Glendenin
| image = Larry_E_Glendenin.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1918|11|8}}
| birth_place = Bay City, Michigan, US
| fields = Chemistry (nuclear)
| workplaces = Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory
| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|11|22|1918|11|8}}
| death_place = Illinois, US
| alma_mater = University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| known_for = promethium
| prizes = Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry (1974)
}}
Lawrence Elgin Glendenin (November 8, 1918{{spaced ndash}}November 22, 2008) was an American chemist who co-discovered the element promethium.{{cite book |last1=Weeks |first1=Mary Elvira |title=The discovery of the elements |date=1956 |publisher=Journal of Chemical Education |location=Easton, PA |url=https://archive.org/details/discoveryoftheel002045mbp |edition=6th }}
Biography
Glendenin was born in Bay City, Michigan on November 8, 1918. He attended the University of Chicago, graduating in 1941.[http://www.legacy.com/chicagotribune/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=120864193 Dr. Lawrence Elgin Glendenin] (obituary), Chicago Tribune, December 2, 2008.
Clinton Laboratories
File:Radiochemists in the counter room on the USS CHILTON making Alpha and Beta counts on samples from Bikini Atoll, 1947 (DONALDSON 140).jpeg, researching the aftereffects of the Bikini Atoll nuclear weapons tests the previous year.]]
He worked as a chemist for the Clinton Laboratories (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) during the World War II Manhattan Project, engaged in separating, identifying and characterizing the radioactive elements produced by nuclear fission. In 1945, he, together with Jacob A. Marinsky and Charles D. Coryell, isolated the previously undocumented rare-earth element 61 (promethium).{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=James L. Marshall |last2=Marshall |first2=Virginia R. Marshall |title=Rediscovery of the elements: The Rare Earths–The Last Member |journal=The Hexagon |date=2016 |pages=4–9 |url=https://chemistry.unt.edu/sites/default/files/users/owj0001/rare%20earths%20III_0.pdf |accessdate=30 December 2019}}[http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/v36_1_03/article_02.shtml Reactor Chemistry – Discovery of Promethium] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706071605/http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/v36_1_03/article_02.shtml |date=2015-07-06 }}, ORNL Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, 2003. Marinsky and Glendenin produced it both by extraction from fission products and by bombarding neodymium with neutrons. They isolated it using ion-exchange chromatography. Publication of the finding was delayed until later due to the war. In September 1947, Marinsky and Glendenin announced the discovery at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.Jacob A. Marinsky, Lawrence E. Glendenin, Charles D. Coryell: "The Chemical Identification of Radioisotopes of Neodymium and of Element 61", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1947, 69 (11), pp. 2781–2785; {{doi|10.1021/ja01203a059}}.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120203102943/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,804273,00.html Nervous Elements], Time magazine, September 29, 1947. Upon the suggestion of Coryell's wife, the team named the new element for the titan god Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and was punished for the act by Zeus. They had also considered naming it "clintonium" for the facility where it was isolated.[http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter2sb6.htm Promethium Unbound: A New Element] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206022448/http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev25-34/chapter2sb6.htm |date=2008-12-06 }}, ORNL Review Vol. 35, Nos. 3 and 4, 2002.
Szilárd petition
In 1945, Glendenin and 154 other Manhattan Project scientists signed the Szilárd petition. The petition urged President Harry S. Truman not to use the first atomic bomb "without restriction", urging him instead to "describe and demonstrate" its power and give Japan "the opportunity to consider the consequences of further refusal to surrender".[http://www.mphpa.org/classic/HISTORY/H-07g.htm Oak Ridge petition, mid-July 1945], The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association.Howard Gest, [http://www.bio.indiana.edu/~gest/hgSzilard.pdf The July 1945 Szilard Petition on the Atomic Bomb; Memoir by a signer in Oak Ridge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327062351/http://www.bio.indiana.edu/~gest/hgSzilard.pdf |date=2009-03-27 }}, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, accessed December 5, 2008.
Late career
In 1949, Glendenin earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That same year he joined Argonne National Laboratory, where he worked until his retirement in 1985.
He published extensively on the properties of fission products. He served as Scientific Secretary for the U.S. delegation to the Atoms for Peace Conference and received the American Chemical Society's Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry in 1974.[http://webapps.acs.org/findawards/detail.jsp?ContentId=CTP_004529 Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724223316/http://webapps.acs.org/findawards/detail.jsp?ContentId=CTP_004529 |date=2011-07-24 }}, American Chemical Society website, accessed December 2, 2008.
Family and death
References
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Category:20th-century American chemists
Category:Manhattan Project people
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Argonne National Laboratory people
Category:Discoverers of chemical elements