1958 Seaborg Award: Jacob Bigeleisen

Born to Polish immigrants in Paterson, N.J., Bigeleisen earned an A.B. degree in chemistry from New York University in 1939. He earned an M.S. with Otto Redlich at Washington State University in 1941 and a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1943 with G. N. Lewis.

Bigeleisen then joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia University, conducting experimental studies on the vibronic states of uranium compounds. Together with Maria Goeppert-Mayer, he developed a quantum statistical mechanical theory of equilibrium isotope chemistry later extended to rate effects. The resulting Bigeleisen-Mayer equation is widely used in studies of reaction mechanisms and isotope fractionation and enrichment processes.

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