James Richard Arnold (May 5, 1923 – January 6, 2012) was the

Harold C. Urey Harold Clayton Urey ( ; April 29, 1893 – January 5, 1981) was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of deuterium. He played a significant role in the d ...

Professor of Chemistry (emeritus), and a noted pioneer in the field of planetary and space

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

at the

University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

(UCSD), where an endowed lectureship has been established in his name.

Early life and education

Arnold received his education at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where he enrolled as an undergraduate at age 16. He earned his doctorate there in 1946 at 23, for work on the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

(his thesis is still classified). Concerns about nuclear fallout and war prompted him to be an early member of the

Union of Concerned Scientists The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environmenta ...

James R. Arnold (1923 - 2012)
, Athena Coustenis for the American Astronomical Society and a

World Federalist The World Federalist Movement advocates strong democratic institutions adhering to the principles of subsidiarity, solidarity and democracy. The movement formed in the 1930s and 1940s by citizens groups concerned that the structure of the new ...

, through which he met his wife Louise in 1950. As a

Postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

under

Willard Libby Willard Frank Libby (December 17, 1908 – September 8, 1980) was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. For his contributions ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, Arnold helped develop the techniques for

Carbon-14 dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

, working with archeological samples from Egypt and other samples with known ages. For this work, Libby was awarded the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

in 1960.

Career

After his postdoc, Arnold returned to Princeton as a faculty member, working on using

cosmic rays Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

to measure the age of rocks., and where he began his work on extraterrestrial material, including cosmic rays. It was at Princeton that Masatake (Masa) Honda and

Devendra Lal Devendra Lal FRS (14 February 1929 – 1 December 2012) was an Indian geophysicist. Life He was born in Varanasi, India. He graduated from Banaras Hindu University. He graduated from Bombay University; his thesis was on cosmic ray physics; ...

first joined his work, an association amongst them that would last the rest of their lives. In 1957,

Roger Revelle Roger Randall Dougan Revelle (March 7, 1909 – July 15, 1991) was a scientist and scholar who was instrumental in the formative years of the University of California, San Diego and was among the early scientists to study anthropogenic global ...

was working to start

UCSD The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

near the campus of

Scripps Institution of Oceanography The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO, Scripps Oceanography, or Scripps) in San Diego, California, US founded in 1903, is one of the oldest and largest centers for oceanography, ocean and Earth science research ...

. He recruited Arnold and a few others to be the founding faculty. The recruitment of

convinced Arnold to accept and move west in 1958, leaving Princeton to become the founding chair of the UCSD Department of Chemistry and help found the campus and recruit faculty.CalSpace Biography
/ref> He was a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

consultant for many years, helping set scientific research priorities, starting just three months after NASA was founded."Jim Arnold, founding chemistry chair, 1923-2012"
, Obituary, UCSD Division of Physical Sciences He played a major role in establishing and reforming the

Lunar Receiving Laboratory The Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) was a facility at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (Building 37) that was constructed to quarantine astronauts and material brought back from the Moon during the Apollo program to reduce the risk of ...

for handling lunar samples returned during the Apollo program, including being one of the "

Four Horsemen The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand tha ...

", along with Bob Walker,

Paul Werner Gast Paul Werner Gast (September 11, 1930 – May 16, 1973) was an American geochemist and geologist. He was born in Chicago to German immigrants and attended Wheaton College, Illinois, whence he graduated in 1952. He earned a Ph.D. from Columbia Un ...

, and Gerry Wasserburg. Arnold performed his own research on lunar rocks and cosmic rays. Under the name SHRELLDALFF (from the initials of its members), his team produced important early papers, and he continued long afterwards with lunar studies, including measurements of the bombardment of the lunar surface by cosmic rays, helping to plot the energy output of the Sun over millions of years. For his work he was awarded the

NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbreviated ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under the current guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually sign ...

in 1970. At the request of then-Governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...

, he founded the University of California's California Space Institute (CalSpace) in 1979, and was its first director for ten years, Asteroid 2143, "

Jimarnold 2143 Jimarnold, provisional designation , is a background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 September 1973, by astronomer Eleanor Helin at the Palomar Observatory ...

", was named for Arnold by its discoverers, E. F. Helin and

Gene Shoemaker Eugene Merle Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 – July 18, 1997) was an American geologist. He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy. This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994: the impact was televise ...

, in 1980 for his work on computer models of meteorite travel. Arnold was a member of the U.S.

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, and a Foreign Fellow of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

. Arnold was also known for wild shirts, a relief from the formal dress required at Princeton."James R. Arnold: From the Manhattan Project to the moon and beyond"
Obituary, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences He was married to Louise Arnold for 60 years, and they had three sons, Bob, Ted, and

Ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in t ...

References

External links

Oral History interview transcript for James R. Arnold on 23 June 1996, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
* W.F. Libby, E.C. Anderson, and J.R. Arnold
"Age Determination by Radiocarbon Content: World-Wide Assay of Natural Radiocarbon"
''Science'', Vol 109, p. 277(4 March 1949)

MSS 112
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, James R. 1923 births 2012 deaths Manhattan Project people American chemists Princeton University alumni Planetary scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy People from Metuchen, New Jersey University of California, San Diego faculty