Eugene T. Booth

He was born on 28 September 1912 in Rome, Georgia {{Citation needed span|text=to Reverend Eugene Theodore Booth, Sr. and Lucy Cornelia Gibson.|date=July 2021}}

Booth studied physics at the University of Georgia, where he received his Bachelor of Science (1932) and Master of Science (1934) degrees, followed by a Doctor of Philosophy (1937) at the University of Oxford. In 1934, he was a Rhodes Scholar.[http://www.uga.edu/gm/archives/ArcRho.html Eugene T. Booth] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911034137/http://fax.libs.uga.edu/hmans/1f/hargrett_manuscripts_C.pdf |date=2006-09-11 }} – University of Georgia, Rhodes Scholar recipient, 1934.Physicist Booth, Who Built Columbia’s Cyclotron, Dies, Columbia University Record: News in Brief [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol29/vol29_iss12/Pg.3_2912New.pdf (26 March 2004)].

Booth joined Columbia University faculty as a lecturer. He also helped professor John R. Dunning with his cyclotron construction and research. Thus began Booth’s lengthy professional collaboration with Dunning.Herbert L. Anderson [http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/jdunning.pdf John Ray Dunning 1907 – 1975] in Biographical Memoir 163-186 (National Academy of Sciences, 1989).

In December 1938, the German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann sent a manuscript to Naturwissenschaften reporting they had detected the element barium after bombarding uranium with neutrons;O. Hahn and F. Strassmann Über den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle (On the detection and characteristics of the alkaline earth metals formed by irradiation of uranium with neutrons), Naturwissenschaften Volume 27, Number 1, 11-15 (1939). The authors were identified as being at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Chemie, Berlin-Dahlem. Received 22 December 1938. simultaneously, they communicated these results to Lise Meitner. Meitner, and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch, correctly interpreted these results as being nuclear fission.Lise Meitner and O. R. Frisch Disintegration of Uranium by Neutrons: a New Type of Nuclear Reaction, Nature, Volume 143, Number 3615, 239-240 {{doi|10.1038/143239a0}}. The paper is dated 16 January 1939. Meitner is identified as being at the Physical Institute, Academy of Sciences, Stockholm. Frisch is identified as being at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Copenhagen. Frisch confirmed this experimentally on 13 January 1939.O. R. Frisch Physical Evidence for the Division of Heavy Nuclei under Neutron Bombardment, Nature, Volume 143, Number 3616, 276-276 {{doi|10.1038/143276a0}}. The paper is dated 17 January 1939. [The experiment for this letter to the editor was conducted on 13 January 1939; see Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb 263 and 268 (Simon and Schuster, 1986).] In 1944, Hahn received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of nuclear fission. Some historians have documented the history of the discovery of nuclear fission and believe Meitner should have been awarded the Nobel Prize with Hahn.Ruth Lewin Sime From Exceptional Prominence to Prominent Exception: Lise Meitner at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry [http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/KWG/Ergebnisse/Ergebnisse24.pdf Ergebnisse 24] Forschungsprogramm Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus (2005).Ruth Lewin Sime Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics (University of California, 1997).Elisabeth Crawford, Ruth Lewin Sime, and Mark Walker A Nobel Tale of Postwar Injustice, Physics Today Volume 50, Issue 9, 26-32 (1997).

Even before it was published, Meitner’s and Frisch’s interpretation of the work of Hahn and Strassmann crossed the Atlantic Ocean with Niels Bohr, who was to lecture at Princeton University. Isidor Isaac Rabi and Willis Lamb, two Columbia University physicists working at Princeton, heard the news and carried it back to Columbia. Rabi said he told Fermi; Fermi gave credit to Lamb. It was soon clear to a number of scientists at Columbia that they should try to detect the energy released in the nuclear fission of uranium from neutron bombardment. On 25 January 1939, Booth was a member of the experimental team at Columbia University which conducted the first nuclear fission experiment in the United States,H. L. Anderson, E. T. Booth, J. R. Dunning, E. Fermi, G. N. Glasoe, and F. G. Slack The Fission of Uranium, Phys. Rev. Volume 55, Number 5, 511 - 512 (1939). Institutional citation: Pupin Physics Laboratories, Columbia University, New York, New York. Received 16 February 1939. which was done in the basement of Pupin Hall; the other members of the team were Herbert L. Anderson, John R. Dunning, Enrico Fermi, G. Norris Glasoe, and Francis G. Slack.Bederson, Benjamin The Physical Tourist: Physics in New York City, Physics in Perspective Volume 5, 87-121 [http://www.bederson.org/bensr/nyc.pdf (2003)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041230140845/http://www.bederson.org/bensr/nyc.pdf |date=2004-12-30 }}.Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb 267-270 (Simon and Schuster, 1986).

During World War II, Booth was a member of Columbia’s scientific staff in the Division of War Research. During the Manhattan Project, Dunning conducted pioneering work at Columbia University on gaseous diffusion to separate uranium isotopes; others working on the project included Booth, Henry A. Boorse, Willard F. Libby, Alfred O. C. Nier, and Francis G. Slack.Boney, F. N. and Michael Adams A Pictorial History of the University of Georgia 114 (University of Georgia, 2000).

After World War II, Booth was director of the project for the design, construction, and operation of a 385-MeV Synchrocyclotron at the Nevis Laboratories in Irvington-on-the-Hudson. The project was a collaborative effort of Columbia University, the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and the Office of Naval Research.Atomic Glue, Time [https://web.archive.org/web/20121023070007/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,815533,00.html?promoid=googlep 15 October 1951].Leon M. Lederman, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1988, Autobiography, The Nobel Foundation [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1988/lederman-autobio.html (1988)].

He died on 6 March 2004{{Cite web|title=Eugene Booth Obituary (2004) Atlanta Journal-Constitution|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/atlanta/name/eugene-booth-obituary?pid=2017132|access-date=2021-07-10|website=Legacy.com}} {{Citation needed span|text=in Briarcliff Manor, New York.|date=July 2021}}

A middle school in Woodstock, Georgia named after his father E.T. Booth was opened at 6550 Putnam Ford Drive, in Woodstock, his hometown.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

• 1941 — Fellow of the American Physical Society{{cite web|title=APS Fellow Archive|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=1941&unit_id=&institution=Columbia+University}}
• Citation from the United States Atomic Energy Commission for his accomplishments in nuclear physics.

• {{cite journal |last1=Booth |first1=E. T. |last2=Hurst |first2=C. |title=Scattering of Neutrons by Protons |journal=Nature |volume=138 |issue=3502 |year=1936 |doi=10.1038/1381011a0 |pages=1011|bibcode=1936Natur.138.1011B |s2cid=4069360 |doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |first1=E. T. |last1=Booth|first2=C. |last2=Hurst|title=Experiments with iso-energetic neutrons |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences |volume=161 |issue=905 |date=1937-07-15 |doi=10.1098/rspa.1937.0144 |pages=248–260|bibcode=1937RSPSA.161..248B|doi-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=H. L. |author-link1=Herbert L. Anderson|last2=Booth |first2=E. T. |last3=Dunning |first3=J. R. |author-link3=John R. Dunning|last4=Fermi |first4=E. |author-link4=Enrico Fermi|last5=Glasoe |first5=G. N. |author-link5=G. N. Glasoe|last6=Slack |first6=F. G. |author-link6=Francis G. Slack|title=The Fission of Uranium |journal=Physical Review |volume=55 |issue=5 |date=1939-03-01 |doi=10.1103/physrev.55.511.2 |pages=511–512|bibcode=1939PhRv...55..511A }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Booth |first1=E. T. |last2=Dunning |first2=J. R. |last3=Slack |first3=F. G. |title=Delayed Neutron Emission from Uranium |journal=Physical Review |volume=55 |issue=9 |date=1939-05-01 |doi=10.1103/physrev.55.876 |pages=876|bibcode=1939PhRv...55..876B }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Booth |first1=E. T. |last2=Dunning |first2=J. R. |last3=Slack |first3=F. G. |title=Energy Distribution of Uranium Fission Fragments |journal=Physical Review |volume=55 |issue=10 |date=1939-05-15 |doi=10.1103/physrev.55.981 |pages=981|bibcode=1939PhRv...55..981B }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Booth |first1=E. T. |last2=Dunning |first2=J. R. |last3=Glasoe |first3=G. N. |title=Range Distribution of the Uranium Fission Fragments |journal=Physical Review |volume=55 |issue=10 |date=1939-05-15 |doi=10.1103/physrev.55.982 |pages=982|bibcode=1939PhRv...55..982B }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Nier |first1=Alfred O. |last2=Booth |first2=E. T. |last3=Dunning |first3=J. R. |last4=Grosse |first4=A. V. |title=Nuclear Fission of Separated Uranium Isotopes |journal=Physical Review |volume=57 |issue=6 |date=1940-03-15 |doi=10.1103/physrev.57.546 |pages=546|bibcode=1940PhRv...57..546N |s2cid=4106096 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Nier |first1=A. O. |last2=Booth |first2=E. T. |last3=Dunning |first3=J. R. |last4=Grosse |first4=A. V. |title=Further Experiments on Fission of Separated Uranium Isotopes |journal=Physical Review |volume=57 |issue=8 |date=1940-04-15 |doi=10.1103/physrev.57.748 |pages=748|bibcode=1940PhRv...57..748N }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Booth |first1=E. T. |last2=Dunning |first2=J. R. |last3=Grosse |first3=A. V. |last4=Nier |first4=A. O. |title=Neutron Capture by Uranium (238) |journal=Physical Review |volume=58 |issue=5 |date=1940-09-01 |doi=10.1103/physrev.58.475.2 |pages=475–476|bibcode=1940PhRv...58..475B }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Grosse |first1=A. V. |last2=Booth |first2=E. T. |last3=Dunning |first3=J. R. |title=The Fourth (4n+1) Radioactive Series |journal=Physical Review |volume=59 |issue=3 |date=1941-02-01 |doi=10.1103/physrev.59.322.2 |pages=322–323|bibcode=1941PhRv...59..322G }}
• E. T. Booth, M. W. Johnson, R. W. Schubert, H. C. Beck, W. E. Hovemeyer, W. F. Goodell, Jr. Cyclotron Report: 1950 - 1951, Report Number NP-3045, 52 pages (1950). Institutional citation: Nevis Cyclotron Labs., Columbia University.

{{reflist}}

• [http://photos.aip.org/images/catalog/booth_eugene_e1.jsp Eugene T. Booth] – Photograph, American Institute of Physics

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Eugene T.}}

Category:20th-century American physicists

Category:American nuclear physicists

Category:American Rhodes Scholars

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

Category:Manhattan Project people

Category:1912 births

Category:2004 deaths

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:University of Georgia alumni

Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford

Category:People from Briarcliff Manor, New York

Category:People from Rome, Georgia

Category:Scientists from New York (state)