Lawrence Elgin Glendenin (November 8, 1918November 22, 2008) 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 t ...

who co-discovered the element promethium.

Biography

Glendenin was born in

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Metrop ...

on November 8, 1918. He attended the

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

, graduating in 1941.Dr. Lawrence Elgin Glendenin
(obituary), ''Chicago Tribune'', December 2, 2008.

Clinton Laboratories

He worked as a chemist for the Clinton Laboratories (now

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...

) during the

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 opposing ...

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 ...

, engaged in separating, identifying and characterizing the

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consi ...

elements produced by nuclear fission. In 1945, he, together with Jacob A. Marinsky and Charles D. Coryell, isolated the previously undocumented

rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides ( yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous silv ...

61 (promethium).Reactor Chemistry – Discovery of Promethium
, ''ORNL Review'', Vol. 36, No. 1, 2003. Marinsky and Glendenin produced it both by extraction from fission products and by bombarding

neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth metals. It is a hard, slightly malleable, silvery metal that quickly tarnishe ...

with

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons beh ...

s. They isolated it using

ion-exchange chromatography Ion chromatography (or ion-exchange chromatography) separates ions and polar molecules based on their affinity to the ion exchanger. It works on almost any kind of charged molecule—including large proteins, small nucleotides, and amino a ...

. Publication of the finding was delayed until later due to the war. In September 1947, Marinsky and Glendenin announced the discovery at a meeting of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

.Nervous Elements
Time magazine, September 29, 1947. Upon the suggestion of Coryell's wife, the team named the new element for the titan god

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...

, who stole fire from the gods and was punished for the act by

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

. They had also considered naming it "clintonium" for the facility where it was isolated.Promethium Unbound: A New Element
, ''ORNL Review'' Vol. 35, Nos. 3 and 4, 2002.

Szilárd petition

In 1945, Glendenin and 154 other Manhattan Project scientists signed the Szilárd petition. The petition urged President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

not to use the first atomic bomb "without restriction", urging him instead to "describe and demonstrate" its power and give Japan "the opportunity to consider the consequences of further refusal to surrender".Howard Gest
The July 1945 Szilard Petition on the Atomic Bomb; Memoir by a signer in Oak Ridge
, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, accessed December 5, 2008.

Late career

In 1949, Glendenin earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. That same year he joined Argonne National Laboratory, where he worked until his retirement in 1985. He published extensively on the properties of fission products. He served as Scientific Secretary for the U.S. delegation to the Atoms for Peace Conference and received the

's Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry in 1974.Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry
, American Chemical Society website, accessed December 2, 2008.

Family and death

Glendenin was married for 63 years to Ethel Glendenin (née Long), who survived him at his death in November 2008. The couple were the parents of two daughters and one son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glendenin, Lawrence E. 20th-century American chemists Manhattan Project people Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni 2008 deaths 1918 births Argonne National Laboratory people Discoverers of chemical elements University of Chicago alumni Rare earth scientists