Milton Burton
{{short description|American chemist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1902|03|04}}
| birth_place = Stapleton, New York, USA
| death_date = {{death_date_and_age|1985|11|10 |1902|03|04}}
| death_place = Mishawaka, Indiana, USA
| name =
| image =
| caption =
| education = New York University
| doctoral_advisor = Francis Owen Rice
| academic_advisors =
| workplaces = New York University
University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame
| website =
}}
Milton Burton (March 4, 1902 – November 10, 1985) was an American chemist, a pioneer in the field of radiation chemistry and radiobiology.{{Cite web |title=MILTON BURTON |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-11-19-8503190883-story.html |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=Chicago Tribune |date=19 November 1985 |language=en}} He founded the Radiation Laboratory at University of Notre Dame in 1949 and served as its director from 1963 to 1971. He proposed the G value for describing the chemical yield in radiolytic reactions.{{Cite journal |last=Burton |first=Milton |date=1947 |title=Radiation Chemistry. |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/j150452a029 |journal=The Journal of Physical and Colloid Chemistry |language=en |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=611–625 |doi=10.1021/j150452a029 |pmid=20286440 |issn=0092-7023|url-access=subscription }} He is often referred to as the godfather of radiation chemistry.{{Cite journal |last=Burton |first=Milton |date=1969-02-10 |title=RADIATION CHEMISTRY: A god fatherly look at its history and its relation to liquids |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cen-v047n006.p086 |journal=Chemical & Engineering News Archive |language=en |volume=47 |issue=6 |pages=86–98 |doi=10.1021/cen-v047n006.p086 |issn=0009-2347|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Magee |first=John L. |date=1988 |title=Introduction |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/1359019788900045 |journal=International Journal of Radiation Applications and Instrumentation, Part C |language=en |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=1–2 |doi=10.1016/1359-0197(88)90004-5|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Mozumder |first=A. |date=2011-12-01 |title=Radiation Chemistry: Background, Current Status and Outlook |journal=The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters |language=en |volume=2 |issue=23 |pages=2994–2995 |doi=10.1021/jz2012758 |issn=1948-7185|doi-access=free }}
Education and career
Burton studied at New York University, obtaining his B.S. in 1922, M.S. in 1923 and Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1925, supervised by Francis Owen Rice. The textbook he cowrote with Gerhard K. Rollefson, Photochemistry and The Mechanism Of Chemical Reactions, first published in 1939, was an influential work for a generation of scientists and one of the first to integrate quantum mechanics into the description of photochemistry.{{Cite journal |last=Magee |first=John L. |date=1986-03-01 |title=Milton Burton 1902-1985 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3576698 |journal=Radiation Research |volume=105 |issue=3 |pages=427–429|jstor=3576698 }} After working for a decade in the industry, Burton joined the faculty at New York University in 1935. He took part in the Manhattan Project between 1942 and 1943 while working at the Metallurgical Laboratory, at the time headed by Arthur Compton, at the University of Chicago.{{Cite web |title=Milton Burton |url=https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/milton-burton |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=Atomic Heritage Foundation |language=en}} He joined the faculty of the department of chemistry at University of Notre Dame in 1945 and remained until his retirement in 1971.
Burton helped found the Radiation Research Society in 1952 as the most influential representative on the chemistry side.
Bibliography
- {{Cite book |last1=Rollefson |first1=G. K |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5988145 |title=Photochemistry and the mechanism of chemical reactions |last2=Burton |first2=Milton |date=1939 |publisher=Prentice-Hall |location=New York |language=English |oclc=5988145}}
- {{Cite book |last1=Burton |first1=Milton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1kPHVlYWNZAC |title=Elementary chemical processes in radiobiological reactions |last2=U.S. Atomic Energy Commission |last3=University of Notre Dame |date=1950 |publisher=United States Atomic Energy Commission, Technical Information Service |location=Oak Ridge, Tenn. |language=English |oclc=795006006}}
- {{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Milton |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1131564779 |title=Comparative effects of radiation. |date=1960 |publisher=Wiley |location=New York |language=English |oclc=1131564779}}
- {{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Milton |chapter=Energie-"Dissipation" in der Strahlenchemie |date=1963 |chapter-url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-663-02396-8_1 |title=Energie-"Dissipation" in der Strahlenchemie. Mehrzentren-Termination |pages=7–26 |place=Wiesbaden |publisher=VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften |language=de |doi=10.1007/978-3-663-02396-8_1 |isbn=978-3-663-00483-7 |access-date=2022-05-05}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.476247/page/n5/mode/2up Photochemistry and The Mechanism Of Chemical Reactions, by Gerhard K. Rollefson and Milton Burton]
Category:New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science alumni
Category:University of Notre Dame faculty
Category:Manhattan Project people
Category:New York University faculty
Category:University of Chicago people
Category:20th-century American chemists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Milton}}