Background

Willard Frank Libby was born on December 17, 1908 in Grand Valley, Colorado, United States, the son of Ora Edward Libby and Eva May Rivers, who were farmers. When he was five years old, the family, which included four other children, moved to an apple ranch near Sebastopol, California.

Education

Libby entered the University of California, Berkeley, in 1927, originally intending to become a mining engineer. He found chemistry more interesting, however, and received the B. S. in that discipline in 1931. He received the Ph. D. from Berkeley two years later, after studying lowenergy radioactive nuclei with the noted physical chemists Gilbert N. Lewis and Wendell M. Latimer.

Career

In 1933 Libby was appointed instructor in chemistry at University of California, Berkeley. In 1941 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and elected to work at Princeton University. His research was interrupted, however, by the entry of the United States into World War II. Libby joined Nobel laureate Harold C. Urey at Columbia University as part of the Manhattan Project, for which he developed gaseous-diffusion techniques for separating uranium isotopes. This work allowed the isolation of fissionable uranium-235 from the more abundant uranium-238, a necessary step in the construction of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

In 1945, Libby moved to the University of Chicago as professor of chemistry and began conducting research at its Institute of Nuclear Studies. Recent discoveries had revealed that cosmic rays hitting atoms in the upper atmosphere produced neutrons that were readily absorbed by nitrogen atoms. This absorption created an unstable isotope that decayed to radioactive carbon-14, found to possess a halflife (the time required for half the atoms in a sample to decay to stable isotopes) of 5, 730 years. Libby theorized that the amount of carbon-14 in the biosphere was constant because the creation of new atoms would be balanced by the decay of old ones. More important, he believed that radiocarbon was rapidly oxidized to carbon dioxide and absorbed by plants through photosynthesis. Organisms consuming these plants would absorb carbon-14, which would remain at a constant level until the organism died. Libby's ideas provided a method to determine the ages of organic material based on the known decay rate of radiocarbon atoms. Measuring the amount of carbon-14 in a sample would reveal the time since the organism died. The accuracy of this proposed technique was quickly tested by measuring the radioactivity present in redwood and fir samples whose ages were precisely known through tree-ring dating techniques.

Libby also tested historical artifacts of known age to confirm his hypothesis. After his announcement of his findings in 1949, the radiocarbon method emerged as the basic technique for dating events of the last 70, 000 years. Although more sophisticated tree-ring analysis during the 1960's disclosed systematic fluctuations in the carbon-14 concentration in the atmosphere and led to recalibration of the radiocarbon time scale, the method has remained a fundamental tool for archaeology and geology.

Libby's reputation led to significant government service. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Libby to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Libby's chief interest was the study of fallout from nuclear weapons testing. A political conservative, Libby argued that fallout was less of a danger than an inadequate American nuclear arsenal, and that Americans would have to learn to live with it. He served as vice-chairman of the American delegation to the First International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, which met in Geneva in 1955. Libby resigned from the AEC in 1959 to become professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Three years later he was appointed director of the university's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, a position he held concurrently with his professorship.

Libby's research interests became increasingly diverse over the next two decades and included geochemistry, lunar and space research, environmental concerns, earthquake protection, and civil defense. Libby's environmental interests led to his membership on the Presidential Task Force on Air Pollution (1969 - 1970), the second position in the Nixon administration for which he had been considered. In late 1968, rumors began to circulate that Libby was President-elect Nixon's choice as science adviser. Libby's well-known ultraconservative political views alarmed many of his scientific colleagues, who protested that he would be a questionable choice for this position. Libby received no further consideration. During his Los Angeles years, Libby served as an adviser to several state governments on topics related to environmental and radiation questions. He retired from UCLA in 1976. He died in Los Angeles.

Achievements

• Libby was one of the nation's leading nuclear scientists. He was the first chemist to serve at the Atomic Energy Commission. He was noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. He was also involved in the development of international efforts for peaceful uses of atomic energy, including Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" program. Libby's major published works, in addition to numerous journal articles, included Radiocarbon Dating (1952); Isotopes in Industry and Medicine (1957); Science and Administration (1961); and a posthumous volume edited by Leona Marshall Libby, Solar System Physics and Chemistry (1981). Libby gained significant recognition during his career, including the Charles Frederick Chandler Medal of Columbia University (1954), the Elliott Cresson Medal of Franklin Institute (1957), and the Willard Gibbs Medal of the American Chemical Society (1958). For his work in developing radiocarbon dating, Libby won the Nobel Prize for chemistry for 1960.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Papers in Geophysics Honoring Louis Byrne Slichter.

    (approx 120p bound in blue cloth, nice fresh copy with fro...)

  • Solar System Physics & Chemistry: and, Papers for the Public, Vol. 5
  • Collected papers
  • Nuclear Ambush: The Test Ban Trap
  • Radiocarbon dating

Membership

Libby was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

Personality

Tall and powerfully built, Libby presented an imposing figure. Fellow Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg described him as a "painstaking, patient, and effective teacher" who also had a "wide-ranging curiosity. "

Connections

On August 9, 1940, Libby married Leonor Lucinda Hickey, a teacher. They had two children. In 1966, he divorced his wife and soon thereafter married Leona Woods Marshall, a professor of environmental engineering at UCLA. They had no children.

Father:

Ora Edward Libby

farmer

Mother:

Eva May Rivers

farmer

Spouse:

Leonor Lucinda Hickey

teacher

Spouse:

Leona Woods Marshall