1982 Seaborg Award: Leo Yaffe

Award Statement C&EN (Page 11)

He studied at the University of Manitoba receiving a B.Sc.(Hons) in 1940, a M.Sc. in 1941, and was awarded an honorary D.Sc. in 1982. He received a Ph.D. in 1943 from McGill University.

His contributions to the field of nuclear chemistry span nearly 40 years beginning in the early 1940’s when he worked in the Canadian atomic energy project, first at Montreal and later at Chalk River, Ont., and have continued through his many years at McGill University, where he has just retired as vice principal of administration and is once again full-time Macdonald Professor of Chemistry.

A key aspect of Yaffe’s early research at Chalk River was the measurement of radioactivity. He conducted some of the first measurements of half-lives and beta-radiation energies, and of the parent-daughter relationships that exist among the products of uranium fission.

Probably the award winner’s most significant contribution to nuclear chemistry, however, is his work in nuclear fission, particularly that induced by projectiles in the energy range from zero to 100 MeV. He has concentrated on the distribution of the nuclear charge of the fissioning nucleus among the fission products, an area where full theoretical understanding has been lacking and where experimental data are difficult to obtain. He also has made a noteworthy contribution to the literature of experimental data on isomer yields as well as their relationship to angular momentum.

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