Charles DuBois Coryell (February 21, 1912 – January 7, 1971) was an American

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

who was one of the discoverers of the

element Element or elements may refer to: Science * Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom * Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance * Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of o ...

promethium Promethium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pm and atomic number 61. All of its isotopes are Radioactive decay, radioactive; it is extremely rare, with only about 500–600 grams naturally occurring in the Earth's crust a ...

. Coryell earned a Ph.D. at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 1935 as the student of Arthur A. Noyes. During the late 1930s he engaged in research on the structure of

hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin, Hb or Hgb) is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the sole exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobin ...

in association with

Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling ( ; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist and peace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. ''New Scientist'' called him one of the 20 gre ...

. He also taught at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

before 1942. In 1942 he accepted a job with the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

, for which he was Chief of the Fission Products Section, both at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

(1942–1946) and at Clinton Laboratories (now

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...

) in

Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, Anderson and Roane County, Tennessee, Roane counties in the East Tennessee, eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville. Oak Ridge's po ...

(1943–1946). His group had responsibility for characterizing

radioactive isotope A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ...

s created by the

fission Fission, a splitting of something into two or more parts, may refer to: * Fission (biology), the division of a single entity into two or more parts and the regeneration of those parts into separate entities resembling the original * Nuclear fissio ...

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

and for developing a process for chemical separation of

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

. In 1945 he was a member of the Clinton Laboratories team, with Jacob Marinsky and Lawrence E. Glendenin, that isolated the previously undocumented

rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths, and sometimes the lanthanides or lanthanoids (although scandium and yttrium, which do not belong to this series, are usually included as rare earths), are a set o ...

61.Reactor Chemistry — Discovery of Promethium
, ''ORNL Review'', Vol. 36, No. 1, 2003 Marinsky and Glendenin produced this element (later named "promethium") both by extraction from

fission product Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the releas ...

s and by bombarding

neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), 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 element, rare-earth metals. It is a hard (physics), hard, sli ...

with

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...

s. They isolated it using

ion-exchange chromatography Ion chromatography (or ion-exchange chromatography) is a form of chromatography that separates ions and ionizable polar molecules based on their affinity to the ion exchanger. It works on almost any kind of Charge (chemistry), charged molecule ...

. Publication of the finding was delayed until later due to the war. 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 ...

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

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titans, Titan. He is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking theft of fire, fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technol ...

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

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

. 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 Coryell was among the Manhattan Project scientists who in 1945 signed the

Szilárd petition The Szilárd petition, drafted and circulated in July 1945 by scientist Leo Szilard, was signed by 70 scientists working on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois. It asked Presiden ...

urging 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. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...

not to use the first

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

"without restriction," urging him instead to "describe and demonstrate" its power and give

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

"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 With Dr. Nathan Sugarman, Coryell was co-editor of ''Radiochemical Studies: The Fission Projects'', a volume of 336 research papers from the Manhattan Project.Guide to the Charles D. Coryell Papers, 1945–1959
University of Chicago Library, accessed December 3, 2008 After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he joined the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) in 1945 as a faculty member in

inorganic An inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds⁠that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemistry''. Inor ...

and

radiochemistry Radiochemistry is the chemistry of radioactive materials, where radioactive isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads t ...

. At MIT he conducted research in fission fine-structure and beta decay theory until his death in 1971. In 1954 he received the Louis Lipsky Fellowship at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

Rehovot, Israel Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

. In 1960 he received the American Chemical Society's

Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry Glenn may refer to: Name or surname * Glenn (name) * John Glenn, U.S. astronaut Cultivars * Glenn (mango) * a 6-row barley variety Places In the United States: * Glenn, California * Glenn County, California * Glenn, Georgia, a settlement i ...

. The Charles D. Coryell Award of the Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology of the American Chemical Society, which is awarded annually to undergraduate students doing research projects in nuclear-related areas, is named in his honor.Coryell Award in Nuclear Chemistry
, website of the Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology of the American Chemical Society, accessed December 3, 2008

References

External links

- ''It's in the Blood! A Documentary History of Linus Pauling, Hemoglobin, and Sickle Cell Anemia'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Coryell, Charles Manhattan Project people 1912 births 1971 deaths Discoverers of chemical elements Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty California Institute of Technology alumni 20th-century American chemists Rare earth scientists Fellows of the American Physical Society