Jacob A. Marinsky

Jacob Akiba Marinsky (April 11, 1918, Buffalo, New York – September 1, 2005) was a chemist who was the co-discoverer of the element promethium.<ref name="Weeks">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Marshall">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Biography

Marinsky was born in Buffalo, New York on April 11, 1918. He attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, beginning at age 16<ref name=boston.com>Jacob Marinsky; co-discoverer of promethium, Associated Press, September 9, 2005</ref> and receiving a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1939.

During World War II he was employed as a chemist for the Manhattan Project, working for Clinton Laboratories (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) from 1944 to 1946.<ref name=NYTobit/> In 1945, together with Lawrence E. Glendenin and Charles D. Coryell, he isolated the previously undocumented rare earth element 61 (promethium).<ref name=ORNLReview>Reactor Chemistry - Discovery of Promethium Template:Webarchive, ORNL Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, 2003</ref> Marinsky and Glendenin produced it both by extraction from fission products and by bombarding neodymium with neutrons.<ref name=ORNLReview/><ref name=time1947/> They isolated it using ion-exchange chromatography.<ref name=ORNLReview/> 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 in September 1947.<ref name=ORNLReview/><ref name=time1947>Nervous Elements, Time magazine, September 29, 1947</ref><ref>Jacob A. Marinsky, Lawrence E. Glendenin, Charles D. Coryell: "The Chemical Identification of Radioisotopes of Neodymium and of Element 61", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1947, 69 (11), pp. 2781–2785; {{#invoke:doi|main}}.</ref> Upon the suggestion of Charles D. Coryell's wife Grace Coryell, the team named the new element for the mythical god Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and was punished for the act by Zeus.<ref name=ORNLReview/> They had also considered naming it "clintonium" for the facility where it was isolated.<ref name=ORNLReview2002>Promethium Unbound: A New Element Template:Webarchive, ORNL Review Vol. 35, Nos. 3 and 4, 2002</ref>

Marinsky was among the Manhattan Project scientists who in 1945 signed a petition against using an atomic bomb on Japan.<ref name=boston.com/>

He resumed his education after the war, obtaining a PhD in Nuclear and Inorganic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1949. He worked in industrial research before joining the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1957.<ref name=NYTobit>Jeremy Pearce, Jacob Marinsky, 87, Dies; Isolated Promethium Ions, New York Times, September 8, 2005</ref> His research was concerned with nuclear inorganic chemistry, physicochemical studies of ion exchange, and polyelectrolyte and electrolyte systems. During the early 1960s Marinsky was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He worked again for SUNY at Buffalo during the late 1960s; when during that time the university required faculty to sign an oath of loyalty to the United States, Marinsky refused, terming it a violation of civil liberties;<ref name=boston.com/> some other faculty members lost their jobs due to such a refusal.<ref>Kenneth J. Heineman, Campus Wars: The Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era, NYU Press, 1994 Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN, pages 62-68.</ref> He retired in 1988, becoming a professor emeritus.<ref name=NYTobit/>

In 1990, he received the Clifford Furnas Memorial Award of the State University of New York at Buffalo, awarded to graduates whose scientific accomplishments brought prestige to the university.<ref name=boston.com/>

Marinsky died on September 1, 2005, from multiple myeloma.<ref name=NYTobit/> He was buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Buffalo. He was survived by his wife, the former Ruth Slick, to whom he was married for 63 years. They were the parents of four daughters.<ref name=boston.com/><ref name=NYTobit/>