Philip Hauge Abelson

Philip Hauge Abelson (born April 27, 1913 in Tacoma , Washington , † August 1, 2004 in Bethesda , Maryland ) was an American physicist and chemist and played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb and was also in the creation of the first synthetic element ( neptunium ) involved. He was later a geophysicist and editor of Science .

Life

Abelson studied at Washington State College with a bachelor's degree in 1933 and a master's degree in 1935 and at the University of California, Berkeley , where he received his doctorate in 1939 with Ernest O. Lawrence . Between 1939 and 1941 he worked at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC In 1940 he assisted Edwin Mattison McMillan in bombarding uranium with neutrons , which led to a new element , the silver-colored metal neptunium . Neptunium was the first element whose atomic mass is higher than that of uranium and the first synthetically produced at all. Small amounts of it were later found in the natural environment.

In 1941 Abelson went to the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. From there he was assigned to the Manhattan Project , where he developed the thermophoresis process for uranium enrichment with the raw material uranium hexafluoride , thus creating the conditions for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons . After the Second World War he first returned to the Naval Research Laboratory and became chief physicist, but went to the Carnegie Institute in 1946 . From 1946 to 1953 he headed the Biophysics Department in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. In 1953 he became director of the geophysical laboratory there and president of the institute from 1971 to 1978 (after which he was trustee ). From 1962 to 1984 Abelson was editor-in-chief of the science journal Science . From 1972 to 1974 he was President of the American Geophysical Union .

Shortly after the war, Abelson dealt with initial studies for the development of nuclear-powered submarines and advocated the peaceful use of radioactive isotopes . He used a method that enabled the detection of amino acids in fossils of various ages and of fatty acids in rocks that were more than 1 billion years old.

Philip Hauge Abelson was awarded the Kalinga Prize for Popularizing Science in 1972 and the AMA Scientific Achievement Award in 1974 . In 1987 he received the National Medal of Science and in 1996 the Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Foundation. He had been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1959 . In 1958 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Since 1949 he was a fellow of the American Physical Society and since 1961 an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . Abelson received several honorary doctorates (including Yale 1964, Duke University, University of Pittsburgh, Tufts University).

Honors

Since 1985, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has awarded the AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize to scientists and others who have made significant contributions to the advancement of science in the United States.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Philip H. Abelson at academictree.org, accessed on January 1, 2018.
2. ↑ Pamela Kalte u. a., American Men and Women of Science, Thomson Gale 2004.
3. ^ AAAS Awards: Philip Hauge Abelson Prize. American Association for the Advancement of Science, accessed September 18, 2018 .