Physics: Biographies

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. World Encyclopedia Further reading

Edwin Mattison McMillan

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

Edwin Mattison McMillan 1907–91, American physicist, b. Redondo Beach, Calif., grad. California Institute of Technology, 1928, Ph.D. Princeton, 1932. On the faculty of the Univ. of California from 1932, he was appointed professor of physics in 1946 and director of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ) in 1958. With P. H. Abelson he discovered neptunium (element 93) and with Glenn Seaborg and others, plutonium (element 94). For his work on the chemistry of the transuranium elements he shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Seaborg. He also contributed to microwave radar and sonar, and to the design of particle accelerators. He worked (1942–45) on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos.

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McMillan, Edwin Mattison

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

McMillan, Edwin Mattison (1907–91) US physicist. In 1951, he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Glenn Seaborg for their discovery of neptunium and other transuranic elements. McMillan worked on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, New Mexico, then on the cyclotron with Ernest Lawrence at the University of California at Berkeley. McMillan developed the synchrocyclotron that led to modern nuclear accelerations, for which he shared the 1973 Atoms for Peace Prize with the Russian physicist V. I. Veksler.

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"McMillan, Edwin Mattison." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"McMillan, Edwin Mattison." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-McMillanEdwinMattison.html

"McMillan, Edwin Mattison." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-McMillanEdwinMattison.html

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