Helen Vaughn Michel (born 1932) is an American chemist best known for her efforts in fields including

analytical chemistry Analytical chemistry studies and uses instruments and methods to separate, identify, and quantify matter. In practice, separation, identification or quantification may constitute the entire analysis or be combined with another method. Separati ...

and archaeological science, and specific processes such as neutron activation analysis and radiocarbon dating. Her work with

Frank Asaro Frank Asaro (born Francesco Asaro, July 31, 1927 – June 10, 2014) was an Emeritus Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory associated with the University of California at Berkeley. He is best known as the chemist who discov ...

at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California (Berkeley) is particularly noteworthy as it includes the dating of

Drake's Plate of Brass The so-called Drake's Plate of Brass is a forgery that purports to be the brass plaque that Francis Drake posted upon landing in Northern California in 1579. The hoax was successful for 40 years, despite early doubts. After the plate came to ...

as well as the

Alvarez hypothesis The Alvarez hypothesis posits that the mass extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and many other living things during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth. Prior to 2013, it was c ...

, the hypothesis that posits the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago. With the ...

. Michel retired from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1990.

References

Living people 1932 births 21st-century American chemists University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley faculty Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory people American women chemists 21st-century American women scientists {{US-chemist-stub