Editing Willard Libby (section)

{{Short description|American physical chemist (1908–1980)}}
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{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Willard Libby.jpg
| image_size        = 
| birth_name        = Willard Frank Libby
| birth_date        = {{birth date|1908|12|17|mf=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Parachute, Colorado]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1980|9|8|1908|12|17|mf=y}}
| death_place       = [[Los Angeles, California]], U.S.
| field             = [[Physical chemistry]]
| work_institution  = {{plainlist|
* [[University of California, Berkeley]]
* SAM Laboratories
* [[Columbia University]]
* [[University of Chicago]]
* [[University of California, Los Angeles]]
}}
| education         = [[University of California, Berkeley]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]], [[PhD]])
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Wendell Mitchell Latimer]]
| thesis_title      = Radioactivity of ordinary elements, especially samarium and neodymium: method of detection
| thesis_year       = 1933
| doctoral_students = {{Flatlist|
* [[Maurice Sanford Fox]]
* [[Frank Sherwood Rowland]]
}}
| known_for         = [[Radiocarbon dating]]
| prizes            = {{plainlist|
* [[Elliott Cresson Medal]] (1957)
* [[Willard Gibbs Award]] (1958)
* [[Joseph Priestley Award]] (1959)
* [[Albert Einstein Award]] (1959)
* [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1960)
* [[Arthur L. Day Medal]] (1961)
}}
| religion          = 
| footnotes         = 
| spouse            = {{plainlist|
* {{Marriage|Leonor Hickey|1940|1966|end=div}}
* {{Marriage|[[Leona Woods|Leona Woods Marshall]]|1966}}
}}
| children          = 2
}}

'''Willard Frank Libby''' (December 17, 1908 – September 8, 1980) was an American [[physical chemistry|physical chemist]] noted for his role in the 1949 development of [[radiocarbon dating]], a process which revolutionized [[archaeology]] and [[palaeontology]]. For his contributions to the team that developed this process, Libby was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1960.

A 1931 chemistry graduate of the [[University of California, Berkeley]], from which he received his doctorate in 1933, he studied radioactive elements and developed sensitive [[Geiger counter]]s to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity. During [[World War II]] he worked in the [[Manhattan Project]]'s Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories at [[Columbia University]], developing the [[gaseous diffusion]] process for [[uranium enrichment]].

After the war, Libby accepted a professorship 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]] similarly could be used for dating water, and therefore wine. In 1950, he became a member of the General Advisory Committee (GAC) of the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]] (AEC). He was appointed a commissioner in 1954, becoming its sole scientist. He sided with [[Edward Teller]] on pursuing a crash program to develop the [[hydrogen bomb]], participated in the [[Atoms for Peace]] program, and defended the administration's atmospheric [[nuclear testing]].

Libby resigned from the AEC in 1959 to become professor of chemistry at [[University of California, Los Angeles]] (UCLA), a position he held until his retirement in 1976.  In 1962, he became the director of the [[University of California]] statewide Institute of [[Geophysics]] and Planetary Physics (IGPP).  He started the first Environmental Engineering program at UCLA in 1972, and as a member of the [[California Air Resources Board]], he worked to develop and improve California's air pollution standards.