Angus Ewan Cameron (14 October 1906 - 27 September 1981) was an American chemist known for his work on isotopic enrichment of

uranium-235 Uranium-235 (235U or U-235) is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238, it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that exis ...

for the purpose of building

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

s and his research on

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...

Career and Research

Cameron was born in Sylvania, Pennsylvania and graduated from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

in 1928 (magna cum laude) and received his PhD from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...

in 1932. After working at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

, he joined Kodak Research Laboratories to work on photographic processing. In 1943 he moved to what is now the

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 and ...

(at the time US AEC site). Much of his work was classified and not published at the time. Cameron was involved in the effort to enrich the isotope

by electromagnetic isotope separation, where he led a division of over 300 people and provided measurements of the isotopes of various uranium materials employed in 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 ...

during

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 ...

. After the war, Cameron continued to work on uranium enrichment using

gaseous diffusion Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) through semipermeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing uranium-235 (235U) and uranium-2 ...

and he led the Stable Isotopes Division from 1955 to 1957, before becoming section chief for mass spectrometry (1957 to 1960) and assistant director of the division (1960 to his retirement in 1971). During his time at

, Cameron built a

time of flight mass spectrometer Time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) is a method of mass spectrometry in which an ion's mass-to-charge ratio is determined by a time of flight measurement. Ions are accelerated by an electric field of known strength. This acceleration result ...

with

David Eggers Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...

and produced a mass spectrum of the

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

isotopes in 1944. He was also involved in the development of a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer the

Viking Mission The ''Viking'' program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, ''Viking 1'' and ''Viking 2'', which landed on Mars in 1976. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts: an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars f ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

. Cameron was elected to the International Commission on Atomic Weights (1959-1981) and the

IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

Mass Spectrometric Evaluation Group and Sub-committee on Assessment of Isotopic Composition. He was the co-author of the 1962 Cameron-Wichers report that converted all atomic weight measurements for all chemical elements to the new

Carbon-12 Carbon-12 (12C) is the most abundant of the two stable isotopes of carbon (carbon-13 being the other), amounting to 98.93% of element carbon on Earth; its abundance is due to the triple-alpha process by which it is created in stars. Carbon-12 i ...

scale, solving a long-standing problem of conflicting atomic mass scales in the field. Cameron died on September 27, 1981, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He was married to Gray Williams and had three sons, Allan W. Cameron, Douglas Cameron, and Alexander Cameron. He enjoyed sports, especially squash.

References

External links

* https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/cameron-angus-ewan {{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Angus Ewan Oberlin College alumni University of Minnesota alumni 20th-century American chemists 1906 births 1981 deaths