Willard Libby

Willard Frank Libby (1908-1980) is known for developing radiocarbon dating, a process that revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. In 1960, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the team that developed the process. Prior to this, he worked on radioactive elements and designed sensitive Geiger counters to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity.

During World War II, Libby worked for the Manhattan Project and developed the gaseous diffusion process for uranium enrichment. After the war, he became a professor at the University of Chicago's Institute for Nuclear Studies, where he developed the technique for dating organic compounds using carbon-14. He also discovered that tritium and carbon-14 could be used for dating water, wine, and other materials.

From 1954 to 1959, Libby served as a commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, where he sided with Edward Teller on pursuing a crash program to develop the hydrogen bomb. He also participated in the Atoms for Peace program and defended atmospheric nuclear testing.

In 1959, Libby left the AEC to become a professor at UCLA, where he established the first Environmental Engineering program and served as a member of the California Air Resources Board. He also served as the director of the University of California's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, retiring in 1976