Burris B. Cunningham
Burris Bell Cunningham (born February 16, 1912 in Springer (New Mexico) , † March 28, 1971 in Berkeley (California) ) was an American chemist , known for his contributions to the chemistry of transuranic elements ( actinides ).
Cunningham studied at the University of Southern California and from 1931 at the University of Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1935 and a doctorate in biochemistry ( The metabolism of Paramecium caudatum ) with Paul Leland Kirk in 1940. There he was, for example, studying metabolism individual bacterial cells familiarized himself with microchemical processes that would soon be useful to him in the chemistry of transuranic elements. From June 1942 he was in the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, where he worked with Louis B. Werner (his closest colleague) and Glenn T. Seaborg on August 20, 1942 for the first time visible and on September 10th quantities of a synthetic element - plutonium - isolated. In doing so, they developed ultra-microchemical techniques and measured 2.77 micrograms of plutonium oxide on a self-made quartz fiber scale. Their methods were the prerequisite for researching the physico-chemical properties of plutonium in the months and years that followed, which was carried out in the group led by Cunningham. In 1946 he went back to Berkeley as an assistant professor, where he and his colleagues isolated for the first time weighable amounts of other transuranic elements ( americium , Berkelium , Californium , Einsteinium ) and obtained information about their chemical properties in experiments using only nanogram amounts (often those on cyclotrons were new generated elements are only available in such small quantities). His close associates and colleagues at the Radiation Laboratory included Seaborg and Stanley G. Thompson . In 1948 he became an associate professor and in 1953 a professor at Berkeley.
Web links
- Obituary in Berkeley by Glenn T. Seaborg, Isadore Perlman
- Photo, with Werner at the Metallurgical Lab in Chicago
Individual evidence
- ↑ biographical data, publications and Academic pedigree of Burris Bell Cunningham at academictree.org, accessed on 28 January 2018th
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cunningham, Burris B. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cunningham, Burris Bell (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 16, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Springer (New Mexico) |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 28, 1971 |
| Place of death | Berkeley, California |