Joseph Kennedy

Joseph William Kennedy (May 30, 1916 – May 5, 1957) was an American chemist who co-discovered plutonium, along with Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, and Arthur Wahl. During World War II, he led the CM (Chemistry and Metallurgy) Division at the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory, where he oversaw research onto the chemistry and metallurgy of uranium and plutonium. After the war, he was recruited as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is credited with transforming a university primarily concerned with undergraduate teaching into one that also boasts strong graduate and research programs. He died of cancer of the stomach at the age of 40.

Early life

Joseph William Kennedy was born in Nacogdoches, Texas, on May 30, 1916, the son of Joseph and Mattie Kennedy. He lived in Center, Texas, for seven years before entering college. He attended Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, and the University of Kansas, which awarded him a Master of Arts (MA) degree. He then entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, writing his thesis on "Studies of nuclear isomerism in tellurium, element 43, and zinc", under the supervision of George Ernest Gibson.

Plutonium

In February 1940, Glenn Seaborg and Edwin McMillan produced plutonium-239 by bombarding uranium with deuterons. This produced neptunium, element 93, which underwent beta-decay to form a new element, plutonium, with 94 protons. Kennedy built a series of detectors and counters to verify the presence of plutonium. He used mica sliced razor thin to produce a window to count alpha particle emissions, and an ionization chamber with a magnetic field to separate the beta particles from the neptunium from alpha particles from the plutonium.