1996 Seaborg Award: William D. Ehmann

Award Statement C&EN (Page 4)

Born in Madison, Wis., Ehmann received a B.S. in 1952 and an M.S. in 1954, both in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Ph.D. in radiochemistry from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1957. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Argonne National Laboratory, he joined the University of Kentucky faculty as an assistant professor in 1959.

In 1964, Ehmann completed groundbreaking research on meteorites while in Australia as a Fulbright Research Scholar. In the 1970s, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration included him in the first group of scientists to analyze moon samples from the Apollo missions.

In later years, Ehmann focused his research on the relationship between trace elements and Alzheimer’s disease. With Diane E. Vance, he wrote the textbook “Radiochemistry and Nuclear Methods of Analysis.”

In 1997, the Journal of Radioanalytical & Nuclear Chemistry published an issue in Ehmann’s honor, which included a review of his contributions as a radioanalytical chemist and radiochemistry educator as well as Ehmann’s own personal narrative about his career (DOI: 10.1007/bf02038495).