1956 Seaborg Award: Willard F. Libby

In 1927 Libby entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his BS in 1931, and his PhD in 1933, writing his doctoral thesis on the “Radioactivity of ordinary elements, especially samarium and neodymium: method of detection” under the supervision of Wendell Mitchell Latimer. Independently of the work of George de Hevesy and Max Pahl, he discovered that the natural long-lived isotopes of samarium primarily decay by emission of alpha particles.

Libby’s involvement with the Manhattan project included working on gaseous diffusion for the enrichment of U-235 from uranium hexafluoride. This included projects on chemical barriers to prevent corrosion and designing the K-25 plant.

After the war, Libby accepted an offer from the University of Chicago of a professorship in the chemistry department at the new Institute for Nuclear Studies. He returned to his pre-war studies of radioactivity. Libby realized that when plants and animals die they cease to ingest fresh carbon-14, thereby giving any organic compound a built-in nuclear clock. He published his theory in 1946, and expanded on it in his monograph Radiocarbon Dating in 1955. He also developed sensitive radiation detectors that could make the measurements required by the technique. Tests against sequoia with known dates from their tree rings showed radiocarbon dating to be reliable and accurate. The technique revolutionised archaeology, palaeontology and other disciplines that dealt with ancient artefacts. In 1960, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science”. He also discovered that tritium similarly could be used for dating water, and therefore wine.

Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for Radiocarbon Dating.

Wikipedia Page

Willard Libby & Radiocarbon Dating – ACS National Historic Chemical Landmark

Nobel Prize Biography