Willard Frank Libby
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About
Physical chemist whose carbon dating method of determining age revolutionized archaeology and earned him the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He also did research on tritium and found that it could be used for dating water.
Before Fame
At 25 years of age he obtained his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, where he then became a lecturer and later assistant professor.
Trivia
Measuring the levels of a carbon isotope allowed his technique to precisely measure the age of objects tens of thousands of years old.
Family Life
His second wife Leona Woods Marshall was involved in the testing of the world's first nuclear reactor.
Associated With
Owen Chamberlain, like him, was among the scientists who worked on the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb during World War II.
