CHEMIST

Willard Libby

1908 - 1980

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Willard Frank Libby (December 17, 1908 – September 8, 1980) was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. For his contributions to the team that developed this process, Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960. A 1931 chemistry graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, from which he received his doctorate in 1933, he studied radioactive elements and developed sensitive Geiger counters to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity. During World War II he worked in the Manhattan Project's Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories at Columbia University, developing the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Willard Libby is the 166th most popular chemist (down from 140th in 2019), the 849th most popular biography from United States (up from 917th in 2019) and the 37th most popular American Chemist.

Willard Libby is most famous for his research in the field of radiocarbon dating. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for his work on radiocarbon dating.

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Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, Willard Libby ranks 166 out of 602. Before him are Ei-ichi Negishi, Georg Wittig, Edmond H. Fischer, Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, Bengt I. Samuelsson, and Frederick Gowland Hopkins. After him are John E. Walker, Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Robert Bruce Merrifield, Derek Barton, Richard F. Heck, and Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1908, Willard Libby ranks 39. Before him are Franz Stangl, Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Joseph Rotblat, Nelson Rockefeller, Manoel de Oliveira, and Alfred Hershey. After him are David Lean, Victor Weisskopf, Tameo Ide, Joseph McCarthy, Werner von Haeften, and Cesare Pavese. Among people deceased in 1980, Willard Libby ranks 31. Before him are Peter Sellers, Alexander Oparin, Otto Frank, Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia, William Tolbert, and Óscar Romero. After him are John Bonham, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, Alejo Carpentier, Milton H. Erickson, Hans Morgenthau, and Oswald Mosley.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Willard Libby ranks 849 out of 20,380. Before him are Linda Lovelace (1949), Ralph Asher Alpher (1921), Kathleen Kennedy (1953), Thomas Burke (1875), Kathy Bates (1948), and Harvey J. Alter (1935). After him are Lawrence Kohlberg (1927), Laura Bush (1946), Monica Lewinsky (1973), Isaac Singer (1811), Edmund Phelps (1933), and Paul Morphy (1837).

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Among CHEMISTS In United States

Among chemists born in United States, Willard Libby ranks 37. Before him are Roger D. Kornberg (1947), Jerome Karle (1918), Glenn T. Seaborg (1912), Marshall Warren Nirenberg (1927), Robert W. Holley (1922), and Paul D. Boyer (1918). After him are Robert Bruce Merrifield (1921), Richard F. Heck (1931), William Standish Knowles (1917), Alan J. Heeger (1936), Robert Curl (1933), and Thomas A. Steitz (1940).

American born Chemists

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