Editing Willard Libby (section)

==Early life and career==
Willard Frank Libby was born in Parachute, Colorado, on December 17, 1908, the son of farmers Ora Edward Libby and his wife Eva May (née Rivers).<ref name="Nobelprize.org">{{Cite web|url = https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1960/libby-bio.html|title = Willard F. Libby – Biographical |publisher=Nobel Foundation |access-date = December 7, 2014 }}</ref> He had two brothers, Elmer and Raymond, and two sisters, Eva and Evelyn.<ref name="NNDB">{{cite web |url=http://www.nndb.com/people/470/000100170/ |title=Willard F. Libby |publisher=Sylent Communications |access-date=July 26, 2015 }}</ref> Libby began his education in a two-room Colorado schoolhouse.{{sfn|Magill|1989|pp=703–712}} When he was five, Libby's parents moved to [[Santa Rosa, California]].{{sfn|Carey|2006|pp=231–232}} He attended [[Analy High School]], in [[Sebastopol, California|Sebastopol]], from which he graduated in 1926.<ref name="Mural">{{cite web | url=http://heritage.sonomalibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15763coll11/id/866 | title=Willard F. Libby mural at Analy High School and a close up of the plaque that can be seen at Libby's left shoulder, May 6, 1984 | access-date=July 22, 2015 | archive-date=March 4, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045321/http://heritage.sonomalibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15763coll11/id/866 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Libby, who grew to be {{convert|6|ft|2|in|cm}} tall, played [[Tackle (gridiron football position)|tackle]] on the high school [[gridiron football|football]] team.<ref name="TIME">{{cite news |newspaper=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=August 15, 1955 |title=Science: The Philosophers' Stone |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,807508-3,00.html |access-date=July 22, 2015 }}</ref>

In 1927 he entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his [[Bachelor of Science|BS]] in 1931, and his [[PhD]] in 1933,<ref name="Nobelprize.org" /> writing his doctoral thesis on the "Radioactivity of ordinary elements, especially samarium and neodymium: method of detection"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b15574777~S1 |title=Radioactivity of ordinary elements, especially samarium and neodymium: method of detection |last=Libby |first=Willard F. |date=1933 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |access-date=July 22, 2015 |archive-date=January 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111235516/http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record%3Db15574777~S1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> under the supervision of [[Wendell Mitchell Latimer]].<ref name="UC">{{cite web |url=http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb1j49n6pv&chunk.id=div00059&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text |title=University of California: In Memoriam, 1980 – Willard Frank Libby, Chemistry: Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California |access-date=July 22, 2015 }}</ref> Independently of the work of [[George de Hevesy]] and Max Pahl, he discovered that the natural long-lived isotopes of [[samarium]] primarily decay by emission of [[alpha particle]]s.{{sfn|Seaborg|1981|pp=92–95}}

Libby was appointed Instructor in the department of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1933.<ref name="Nobelprize.org" /> He became an [[assistant professor]] of chemistry there in 1938.<ref name="Guggenheim"/> He spent the 1930s building sensitive [[Geiger counter]]s to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity. {{sfn|Seaborg|1981|pp=92–95}}  He joined Berkeley's chapter of [[Alpha Chi Sigma]] in 1941.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://axs.berkeley.edu/ |title=Alpha Chi Sigma |publisher=Sigma Chapter  |access-date=July 22, 2015 }}</ref> That year he was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]],<ref name="Guggenheim">{{cite web |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/willard-f-libby/ |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation |title=Willard F. Libby  |access-date=July 28, 2015 }}</ref>  and elected to work at [[Princeton University]].<ref name="TIME" />