Arthur Charles Wahl (September 8, 1917 – March 6, 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 t ...
who, as a doctoral student of
Glenn T. Seaborg at 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 ...
, first isolated
plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibi ...
in February 1941.
[Glenn Seaborg: Chamberlain of Science.](_blank)
Science Spectra. Nº 11 (1998) He was a worker 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 ...
in
Los Alamos until 1946, when he joined
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
. Beginning in 1952, he was the Henry V. Farr Professor of Radiochemistry; he received 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 ...
Award in Nuclear Chemistry in 1966 and retired in 1983. He moved back to Los Alamos in 1991 and continued his scientific writing until 2005. He died in 2006 of Parkinson's disease and pneumonia.
Further reading
* Jeremy Bernstein: ''Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element.'' Cornell University Press, 2009.
References
External links
*
1917 births
20th-century American chemists
2006 deaths
Iowa State University alumni
Manhattan Project people
University of California, Berkeley alumni
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