Willard Libby

Willard Frank Libby (December 17, 1908 –

September 8, 1980) was an American physical chemist Willard Libby
noted for his role in the 1949 development of
radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized
archaeology and palaeontology. For his contributions
to the team that developed this process, Libby was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960.

A 1931 chemistry graduate of the University of

California, Berkeley, from which he received his
doctorate in 1933, he studied radioactive elements and
developed sensitive Geiger counters to measure weak
natural and artificial radioactivity. During World War II
he worked in the Manhattan Project's Substitute Alloy
Materials (SAM) Laboratories at Columbia University,
developing the gaseous diffusion process for uranium
enrichment. Born Willard Frank Libby
December 17, 1908
After the war, Libby accepted a professorship at the
Parachute, Colorado, U.S.
University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies,
where he developed the technique for dating organic Died September 8, 1980 (aged 71)
compounds using carbon-14. He also discovered that Los Angeles, California, U.S.
tritium similarly could be used for dating water, and Education University of California, Berkeley
therefore wine. In 1950, he became a member of the (BS, PhD)
General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Atomic Known for Radiocarbon dating
Energy Commission (AEC). He was appointed a Spouses Leonor Hickey
commissioner in 1954, becoming its sole scientist. He ​
​(m. 1940; div. 1966)​
sided with Edward Teller on pursuing a crash program
to develop the hydrogen bomb, participated in the Leona Woods Marshall
​
​(m. 1966)​
Atoms for Peace program, and defended the
administration's atmospheric nuclear testing. Children 2
Awards Elliott Cresson Medal (1957)
Libby resigned from the AEC in 1959 to become
Willard Gibbs Award (1958)
professor of chemistry at University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA), a position he held until his Joseph Priestley Award (1959)
retirement in 1976. In 1962, he became the director of Albert Einstein Award (1959)
the University of California statewide Institute of Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1960)
Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). He started Arthur L. Day Medal (1961)
the first Environmental Engineering program at UCLA
Scientific career
Fields Physical chemistry
in 1972, and as a member of the California Air Institutions University of California, Berkeley
Resources Board, he worked to develop and improve SAM Laboratories
California's air pollution standards.
Columbia University
University of Chicago

Early life and career University of California, Los

Angeles
Willard Frank Libby was born in Parachute, Colorado, Thesis Radioactivity of ordinary
on December 17, 1908, the son of farmers Ora Edward elements, especially samarium
Libby and his wife Eva May (née Rivers).[1] He had and neodymium: method of
two brothers, Elmer and Raymond, and two sisters, detection (1933)
Eva and Evelyn.[2] Libby began his education in a two- Doctoral Wendell Mitchell Latimer
room Colorado schoolhouse.[3] When he was five, advisor
Libby's parents moved to Santa Rosa, California.[4] He
Doctoral Maurice Sanford Fox · Frank
attended Analy High School, in Sebastopol, from
students Sherwood Rowland
which he graduated in 1926.[5] Libby, who grew to be
6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall, played tackle on the high
school football team.[6]

In 1927 he entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his BS in 1931, and his PhD
in 1933,[1] writing his doctoral thesis on the "Radioactivity of ordinary elements, especially samarium
and neodymium: method of detection"[7] under the supervision of Wendell Mitchell Latimer.[8]
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.[9]

Libby was appointed Instructor in the department of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley,
in 1933.[1] He became an assistant professor of chemistry there in 1938.[10] He spent the 1930s building
sensitive Geiger counters to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity. [9] He joined Berkeley's
chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma in 1941.[11] That year he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship,[10] and
elected to work at Princeton University.[6]

Manhattan Project
On December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into
World War II, Libby volunteered his services to Nobel Prize laureate Harold Urey. Urey arranged for
Libby to be given leave from the University of California, Berkeley and to join him at Columbia
University to work on the Manhattan Project, the wartime project to develop atomic bombs,[1][6] at what
became its Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories.[12] During his time in the New York City area,
Libby was a resident of Leonia, New Jersey.[13]

Over the next three years, Libby worked on the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment.[4] An
atomic bomb required fissile material, and the fissile uranium-235 made up only 0.7 percent of natural
uranium. The SAM Laboratories therefore had to find a way of separating kilograms of it from the more
abundant uranium-238. Gaseous diffusion worked on the principle that a lighter gas diffuses through a
barrier faster than a heavier one at a rate inversely proportional to its molecular weight. But the only
known gas containing uranium was the highly corrosive uranium hexafluoride, and a suitable barrier was
hard to find.[14]

Through 1942, Libby and his team studied different barriers and the means to protect them from
corrosion from the uranium hexafluoride.[15] The most promising type was a barrier made of powdered
nickel developed by Edward O. Norris of the Jelliff Manufacturing Corporation and Edward Adler from
the City College of New York, which became known as the "Norris-Adler" barrier by late 1942.[16]

In addition to developing a suitable barrier, the SAM Laboratories also had to assist in the design of a
gaseous separation plant, which became known as K-25. Libby helped with the engineers from Kellex to
produce a workable design for a pilot plant.[17] Libby conducted a series of tests that indicated that the
Norris-Adler barrier would work, and he remained confident that with an all-out effort, the remaining
problems with it could be solved. Although doubts remained, construction work began on the K-25 full-
scale production plant in September 1943.[18]

As 1943 gave way to 1944, many problems remained. Tests began on the machinery at K-25 in April
1944 without a barrier. Attention turned to a new process developed by Kellex. Finally, in July 1944,
Kellex barriers began to be installed in K-25.[19] K-25 commenced operation in February 1945, and as
cascade after cascade came online, the quality of the product increased. By April 1945, K-25 had attained
a 1.1% enrichment.[20] Uranium partially enriched in K-25 was fed into the calutrons at Y-12 to complete
the enrichment process.[21]

Construction of the upper stages of the K-25 plant was cancelled, and Kellex was directed to instead
design and build a 540-stage side feed unit, which became known as K-27.[22] The last of K-25's 2,892
stages commenced operation in August 1945.[20] On August 5, K-25 starting producing feed enriched to
23 percent uranium-235.[23] K-25 and K-27 achieved their full potential only in the early postwar period,
when they eclipsed the other production plants and became the prototypes for a new generation of
plants.[20] Enriched uranium was used in the Little Boy bomb employed in the bombing of Hiroshima on
August 6, 1945.[24] Libby brought home a stack of newspapers and told his wife, "This is what I've been
doing."[6]

Radiocarbon dating
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.[1] He returned to his pre-war studies of
radioactivity.[4] In 1939, Serge Korff had discovered that cosmic rays generated neutrons in the upper
atmosphere. These interact with nitrogen-14 in the air to produce carbon-14:[25][26]
1n + 14N → 14C + 1p

The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730±40 years.[27] 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.[26] He
published his theory in 1946,[28][29] 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.[4] 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".[30] He also discovered that tritium similarly could be used for dating water, and therefore
wine.[26]

Atomic Energy Commission

Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Chairman Gordon Dean appointed Libby to its influential General
Advisory Committee (GAC) in 1950. In 1954, he was appointed an AEC commissioner by President
Dwight D. Eisenhower on the recommendation of Dean's successor, Lewis Strauss. Libby and his family
moved from Chicago to Washington, D.C. He brought with him a truckload of scientific equipment,
which he used to establish a laboratory at the Carnegie Institution there to continue his studies of amino
acids. Staunchly conservative politically, he was one of the few scientists who sided with Edward Teller
rather than Robert Oppenheimer during the debate on whether it was wise to pursue a crash program to
develop the hydrogen bomb.[6] As a commissioner, Libby played an important role in promoting
Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program,[9] and was part of the United States delegation at the Geneva
Conferences on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in 1955 and 1958.[6][31]

As the only scientist among the five AEC commissioners, it fell to Libby to defend the Eisenhower
administration's stance on atmospheric nuclear testing.[32] He argued that the dangers of radiation from
nuclear tests were less than that from chest X-rays, and therefore less important than the risk of having an
inadequate nuclear arsenal, but his arguments failed to convince the scientific community or reassure the
public.[9][33] In January 1956, he publicly revealed the existence of Project Sunshine, a series of secret
research studies to ascertain the impact of radioactive fallout on the world's population that he had
initiated in 1953 while serving on the GAC. The project caused controversy after it was revealed to the
public and with the revelation it was found out that much of the research involved stealing the bodies of
dead children without the parents' consent and doing radioactive experiments on them. Many of the 1,500
sample cadavers were babies and young children, and were taken from countries from Australia to
Europe, often without their parents' consent or knowledge.[34] By 1958, even Libby and Teller were
supporting limits on atmospheric nuclear testing.[35]

UCLA
Libby resigned from the AEC in 1959, and he became professor of
chemistry at University of California, Los Angeles, a position he
held until his retirement in 1976. He taught honors freshman
chemistry. In 1962, he became the director of the University of
California statewide Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics
(IGPP), a position he also held until 1976. His time as director
encompassed the Apollo space program and the lunar landings.
[4][8]

Libby started the first Environmental Engineering program at

Libby in the lab, c. 1960s
UCLA in 1972.[8] As a member of the California Air Resources
Board, he worked to develop and improve California's air
pollution standards.[9] He established a research program to investigate heterogeneous catalysis with the
idea of reducing emissions from motor vehicles through more complete fuel combustion.[8] The election
of Richard Nixon as president in 1968 generated speculation that Libby might be appointed as
Presidential Science Advisor. There was a storm of protest from scientists who felt that Libby was too
conservative, and the offer was not made.[36]

Although Libby retired and became a professor emeritus in 1976,[8] he remained professionally active
until his death in 1980.[3]

Awards and honors

Libby was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.[3] In addition to the Nobel Prize, he received
numerous honors and awards, including Columbia University's Chandler Medal in 1954,[37] the Remsen
Memorial Lecture Award in 1955, the Bicentennial Lecture Award from the City College of New York
and the Nuclear Applications in Chemistry Award in 1956, the Franklin Institute's Elliott Cresson Medal
in 1957, the American Chemical Society's Willard Gibbs Award in 1958, the Joseph Priestley Award from
Dickinson College and the Albert Einstein Medal in 1959, the Geological Society of America's Arthur L.
Day Medal in 1961,[38] the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1961,[39]
the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Chemists in 1970,[40] and the Lehman Award from the New
York Academy of Sciences in 1971. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in
1950.[38] Analy High School library has a mural of Libby,[5] and a Sebastopol city park and a nearby
highway are named in his honor.[41] His 1947 paper on radiocarbon dating was honored by a Citation for
Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical
Society presented to the University of Chicago in 2016.[42][43][29]

Personal life
In 1940, Libby married Leonor Hickey, a physical education teacher.[6] They had twin daughters, Janet
Eva and Susan Charlotte, who were born in 1945.[2]

In 1966 Libby divorced Leonor and married Leona Woods Marshall, a distinguished nuclear physicist
who was one of the original builders of Chicago Pile-1, the world's first nuclear reactor. She joined him at
UCLA as a professor of environmental engineering in 1973. Through this second marriage he acquired
two stepsons, the children of her first marriage.[2][44]
Libby died at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on September 8, 1980, from a blood clot in his
lung complicated by pneumonia.[36] His papers are in the Charles E. Young Research Library at
UCLA.[45] Seven volumes of his papers were edited by Leona and Rainer Berger and published in
1981.[46]

Bibliography
Arnold, J.R.; Libby, W.F. (October 10, 1946). Radiocarbon from Pile Graphite; Chemical
Methods for Its Concentrations ([Link]
1/high_res_d/[Link]) (PDF) (Report). pp. CC–3643, 4350390. doi:10.2172/4350390
([Link] OSTI 4350390 ([Link]
W.F. Libby (1946). "Atmospheric Helium Three and Radiocarbon from Cosmic Radiation".
Physical Review. 69 (11–12): 671–672. Bibcode:1946PhRv...69..671L ([Link]
[Link]/abs/1946PhRv...69..671L). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.69.671.2 ([Link]
3%2FPhysRev.69.671.2).
Libby, Willard F., Radiocarbon dating, 2d ed., University of Chicago Press, 1955.
Libby, W. F. (August 15, 1958). "Radioactive Fallout" ([Link]
les/PMC534564). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 44 (8): 800–820.
Bibcode:1958PNAS...44..800L ([Link]
doi:10.1073/pnas.44.8.800 ([Link] PMC 534564 (http
s://[Link]/pmc/articles/PMC534564). PMID 16590276 ([Link]
[Link]/16590276).
Libby, W. F. (August 4, 1958). Progress in the use of isotopes. The Atomic Triad - reactors,
radioisotopes and radiation. Second United Nations International Conference on the
Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. Atomic Energy Commission. OSTI 4325402 ([Link]
[Link]/biblio/4325402).
Libby, W. F. (August 1967). History of Radiocarbon Dating. Symposium on radioactive dating
and methods of low-level counting. Monaco. pp. 3–25. OCLC 4433103714 ([Link]
[Link]/oclc/4433103714). OSTI 4582402 ([Link]
Libby, L. M.; Libby, W. F. (October 18, 1972). Vulcanism and radiocarbon dates.
International radiocarbon dating conference. Wellington, New Zealand.
CiteSeerX [Link].4982 ([Link]
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Libby, W. F. (October 18, 1972). Radiocarbon dating, memories, and hopes. International
Conference on Radiocarbon Dating. Wellington, New Zealand. CiteSeerX [Link].4730
([Link] OSTI 4247579 (http
s://[Link]/biblio/4247579).
Libby, W. F. (1981). Berger, Rainer; Libby, Leona Marshall (eds.). Collected papers. Santa
Monica, California: Geo Science Analytical. ISBN 978-0-941054-00-3. (7 volumes)

Notes
1. "Willard F. Libby – Biographical" ([Link]
es/1960/[Link]). Nobel Foundation. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
2. "Willard F. Libby" ([Link] Sylent Communications.
Retrieved July 26, 2015.
3. Magill 1989, pp. 703–712.
4. Carey 2006, pp. 231–232.
 5. "Willard F. Libby mural at Analy High School and a close up of the plaque that can be seen
at Libby's left shoulder, May 6, 1984" ([Link]
[Link]/cdm/ref/collection/p15763coll11/id/866). Archived from the original
([Link] on March 4, 2016.
Retrieved July 22, 2015.
6. "Science: The Philosophers' Stone" ([Link]
9,807508-3,[Link]). Time. August 15, 1955. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
7. Libby, Willard F. (1933). "Radioactivity of ordinary elements, especially samarium and
neodymium: method of detection" ([Link]
[Link]/record%3Db15574777~S1). University of California, Berkeley. Archived from
the original ([Link] on January 11, 2020.
Retrieved July 22, 2015.
8. "University of California: In Memoriam, 1980 – Willard Frank Libby, Chemistry: Berkeley and
Los Angeles" ([Link]
alisphere&[Link]=entire_text). University of California. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
9. Seaborg 1981, pp. 92–95.
10. "Willard F. Libby" ([Link] John Simon
Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
11. "Alpha Chi Sigma" ([Link] Sigma Chapter. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
12. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 128.
13. "Well-Read, Well-Shaded and Well-Placed" ([Link]
=9E01EFDF113CF936A25755C0A961958260). The New York Times. June 15, 1997.
Retrieved March 30, 2011. "Much later, its residents included five Nobel Prize winners,
among them Enrico Fermi, one of the developers of the atomic bomb, and Willard Libby,
who discovered radiocarbon dating; Sammy Davis Jr., Pat Boone and Alan Alda, the
entertainers, and Robert Ludlum, the author"
14. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 29–31.
15. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 99–100.
16. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 101, 126.
17. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 121–124.
18. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 130–134.
19. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 137–141.
20. Jones 1985, pp. 167–171.
21. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 159–160.
22. Jones 1985, pp. 158–165.
23. Jones 1985, p. 148.
24. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 401–403.
25. Korff, S. A. (December 1, 1940). "On the contribution to the ionization at sea-level produced
by the neutrons in the cosmic radiation". Journal of the Franklin Institute. 230 (6): 777–779.
doi:10.1016/S0016-0032(40)90838-9 ([Link]
838-9).
26. Willard Libby ([Link] on [Link] , accessed 1 May
2020 including the Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1960 Radiocarbon Dating
27. Godwin, H (1962). "Half-life of radiocarbon" ([Link] Nature.
195 (4845): 984. Bibcode:1962Natur.195..984G ([Link]
ur.195..984G). doi:10.1038/195984a0 ([Link]
S2CID 27534222 ([Link]
28. W.F. Libby (1946). "Atmospheric Helium Three and Radiocarbon from Cosmic Radiation".
Physical Review. 69 (11–12): 671–672. Bibcode:1946PhRv...69..671L ([Link]
[Link]/abs/1946PhRv...69..671L). doi:10.1103/PhysRev.69.671.2 ([Link]
3%2FPhysRev.69.671.2).
29. Anderson, E. C.; Libby, W. F.; Weinhouse, S.; Reid, A. F.; Kirshenbaum, A. D.; Grosse, A. V.
(May 30, 1947). "Radiocarbon From Cosmic Radiation". Science. 105 (2735): 576–577.
Bibcode:1947Sci...105..576A ([Link]
doi:10.1126/science.105.2735.576 ([Link]
PMID 17746224 ([Link]
30. "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1960" ([Link]
reates/1960/). Nobel Foundation. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
31. Hewlett & Holl 1989, p. 446.
32. Hewlett & Holl 1989, pp. 278–279.
33. Greene 2007, p. 65.
34. Buck, Alice (July 1983). "The Atomic Energy Commission" ([Link]
AEC%[Link]) (PDF). United States Department of Energy. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
35. Hewlett & Holl 1989, pp. 542–543.
36. Well, Martin (September 10, 1980). "Willard Libby Dies, Noted For Carbon-14 Research" (htt
ps://[Link]/archive/local/1980/09/10/willard-libby-dies-noted-for-carbon-1
4-research/b5aa834e-763d-418b-b762-9cfe7f5077d5/). Washington Post. Retrieved
July 29, 2015.
37. "To Award Chandler Medal Tomorrow To Chicago Chemist" ([Link]
[Link]/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19540216-01.2.11&e=-------en-20--65004--txt-txIN-C
olumbia-ARTICLE----). Columbia Daily Spectator. Vol. XCVIII, no. 66. February 16, 1954.
Retrieved July 29, 2015.
38. Laylin 1993, pp. 419–420.
39. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" ([Link]
g/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration). [Link]. American
Academy of Achievement.
40. "Gold Medal Award Winners" ([Link]
s). AIC. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
41. "City Parks" ([Link]
ity-parks). City of Sebastopol, California. Archived from the original ([Link]
s/page/city-parks) on November 15, 2016. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
42. "2016 Awardees" ([Link]
hp). American Chemical Society, Division of the History of Chemistry. University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign School of Chemical Sciences. 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
43. "Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award" ([Link]
ds/Citations/2016-ACS%20Rendering_Libby.pdf) (PDF). American Chemical Society,
Division of the History of Chemistry. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of
Chemical Sciences. 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
44. Folkart, Burt A. (November 13, 1986). "Leona Marshall Libby Dies; Sole Woman to Work on
Fermi's 1st Nuclear Reactor" ([Link]
[Link]). Retrieved April 16, 2013.
45. "Finding Aid for the Willard F. Libby Papers" ([Link]
49q5hh/dsc/). Retrieved July 28, 2015.
46. Libby 1981.

References
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Debate, 1945–1963. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-
5445-3. OCLC 65204949 ([Link]
Hewlett, Richard G.; Anderson, Oscar E. (1962). The New World, 1939–1946 ([Link]
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Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07186-5. OCLC 637004643 ([Link]
[Link]/oclc/637004643). Retrieved March 26, 2013.
—; Holl, Jack M. (1989). Atoms for Peace and War, 1953–1961 Eisenhower and the Atomic
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[Link]) (PDF). A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
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Laylin, James K. (1993). Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, 1901–1992 ([Link]
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Magill, Frank N. (1989). The Nobel Prize Winners, Chemistry 1938–1968 ([Link]
g/details/nobelprizewinner0000unse_s8k3). Pasadena, California: Salem Press. ISBN 978-
0-89356-561-9. Multi-volume set. Volume .
Seaborg, Glenn T. (February 1981). "Obituary: Willard Frank Libby" ([Link]
3%2F1.2914458). Physics Today. 34 (2): 92–95. Bibcode:1981PhT....34b..92S ([Link]
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External links
Willard Libby ([Link] on [Link] including the
Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1960 Radiocarbon Dating

Retrieved from "[Link]