Kenneth Street Jr. (1920 – 13 March 2006) was an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

. He was part of the team that discovered elements 97 and 98 (

berkelium Berkelium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the symbol Bk and atomic number 97. It is a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the Lawrence Berke ...

and

californium Californium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Cf and atomic number 98. The element was first synthesized in 1950 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then the University of California Radiation Laboratory), by bombarding ...

) in 1949 and 1950.Kenneth Street Jr
, Obituaries for April 25, 2006, Lassen County Times, accessed 6 March 2011 Street was born in 1920 in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

. He obtained his degree in chemistry in 1943 from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He then served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a fighter pilot, with his awards including the

Air Medal The Air Medal (AM) is a military decoration of the United States Armed Forces. It was created in 1942 and is awarded for single acts of heroism or meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight. Criteria The Air Medal was establish ...

and the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, he returned to Berkeley, obtaining his PhD in

nuclear chemistry Nuclear chemistry is the sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes, and transformations in the nuclei of atoms, such as nuclear transmutation and nuclear properties. It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as t ...

in 1949, with a thesis titled 'Isotopes of americium and curium'. The work on berkelium and californium was carried out at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now part of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) with

Stanley G. Thompson Stanley Gerald Thompson (1912–1976) was an American chemist. He discovered together with Glenn T. Seaborg several of the transuranium elements. One of the elements is Californium, which he and several others made. He received Guggenheim Fellow ...

Glenn T. Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg (; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work in ...

and Albert Ghiorso.Proceedings of the Symposium Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of Elements 97 and 98
escholarship.org, accessed 6 March 2011 Street joined the faculty at Berkeley in 1949, and became Deputy Director of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, and later a professor of chemistry. His specialities and interests were in the areas of

geochemistry Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...

and

geothermal energy Geothermal energy is the thermal energy in the Earth's crust which originates from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of materials in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions. The high temperature and pres ...

. Street retired in 1986, and moved to

Taylorsville, California Taylorsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Plumas County, California, United States. The population was 150 at the 2010 census, down from 154 at the 2000 census. The annual Stone Ranch Reunion is held in Taylorsville. Geography Taylorsv ...

in 1997 with his wife Jane (née Armitage). They had married in 1944 and had three children, two sons and a daughter. Street's interests included walking in the mountains, backpacking and sailing. Street died on 13 March 2006, in

Paradise, California Paradise is a town in Butte County, California, United States in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the northeastern Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 4,764. On November 8, 2018, a major wildfire, the Camp Fire ...

References

1920 births 2006 deaths University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Berkeley staff 20th-century American chemists Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) People from Plumas County, California United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II {{US-chemist-stub