Harold Clayton Urey Papers: Selections
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2401 digital objects.
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Harold Clayton Urey was a scientist of considerable scope whose discovery of deuterium helped him win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934. Urey also made fundamental contributions to the creation of the atomic bomb through his development of the isotope separation processes for the Manhattan Project. In the period following World War II, Urey played an active part in advocating nuclear arms control, in promoting space exploration, and in the development of the newly created campus of the University of California, San Diego.
Born in 1893, Urey worked as a schoolteacher in rural Indiana and Montana. He graduated from Montana State University in 1917 and after working for a few years entered the doctoral program at UC Berkeley. While UC Berkeley, Urey's research dealt with the rotational contributions to the heat capacities and entropies of gases, a subject not well understood at the time. He was able to form calculations which led directly to the present-day methods of calculating thermodynamic functions from spectroscopic data. In 1923, Urey attended the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen where he studied under Niels Bohr, who was conducting seminal work in the theory of atomic structure. During this period Urey became involved in the international development of atomic and molecular physical science, and he made the acquaintance of prominent scientists of the time, including Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli and Georg von Hevesy. While in Europe, Urey met Albert Einstein, who became a life-long friend.
Urey returned to the United States in 1924, and for the next five years served as Associate in Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. From 1929 to 1934 he held the position of Associate Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. His research during these years was principally devoted to experimental and theoretical work in spectroscopy and quantum mechanics. At this time he collaborated with A.E. Ruark in writing Atoms, Molecules and Quanta, one of the earliest books on quantum mechanics, which eventually became one of the standard texts on the subject.
In 1931, Urey announced that he, together with George M. Murphy and Ferdinand G. Brickwedde, had discovered the existence of heavy water, deuterium, in which the molecules consist of an atom of oxygen and two atoms of heavy hydrogen. The identification of deuterium has been called one of the foremost achievements of modern science and has had a significant effect on research in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine. As the discoverer of this isotope, Urey was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934. His Nobel Prize address, delivered on February 14, 1935, was entitled, "Some Thermodynamic Properties of Hydrogen and Deuterium."
Urey was the first editor of the Journal of Chemical Physics in 1933. The American Institute of Physics published this journal in response to the developing interest in sub-atomic and molecular spectroscopy and structure. Urey remained editor until 1941, establishing the journal as a leader in the newly created field of chemical physics.
For the next decade, Urey occupied himself with the experimental and theoretical aspects of isotopic chemistry, and he soon became the leading authority on the subject. In 1934 he was appointed to the position of Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, and from 1939 to 1942 he was the executive officer of the Chemistry Department at Columbia. Urey's scientific work became increasingly concerned with the separation of isotopes, and in 1940 the United States government recruited him to serve as director of the program, established at Columbia, for the separation of uranium isotopes and deuterium oxide production.
During World War II, Urey applied his work in uranium isotope separation to the development of the atomic bomb. The U.S. Army assumed responsibility for atomic weapons development -- eventually called the Manhattan Project -- and General Leslie Groves served as overall director of the effort. Urey was appointed to the position of Director of War Research for the Special Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories at Columbia, where he worked on the uranium separation problem. He also served as one of three program chiefs in the Manhattan Project. Although awarded the Congressional Medal of Merit for his contributions, Urey's concern for the destructive consequences of atomic weapons, and his aversion to secret work, prompted him to leave the project. In response to the U.S. use of atomic bombs against Japan, Urey joined Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, and other scientists to form the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. This organization dedicated itself to enunciating the ethical and moral problems involved in the use of atomic weapons. Urey also joined with physicist Leo Szilard to oppose the U.S. military's administration of atomic power and to advocate limitations in the use of the atomic bomb.
In 1945, Urey joined the faculty of the University of Chicago; working with Enrico Fermi, Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, Joseph Mayer, and Maria Goeppert Mayer, Urey contributed his efforts to the establishment of the Institute of Nuclear Studies. He focused his attention on geochemistry and the problems of the cosmos, and is work on the measurement of the paleotemperatures of ancient oceans is considered one of the great developments of the earth sciences. This work involved a wide scope of disciplines ranging from Urey's early biological interests to his studies of isotopic fractionation and the history of the earth. While at Chicago, he wrote The Planets: Their Origin and Development, in which he constructed the first systematic and detailed chronology of the origin of the earth, the moon, the meteorites, and the solar system. Urey participated in Operation Crossroads in 1946. This was a major atomic bomb test carried out by the U.S. government at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. As a scientific observer, Urey joined other prominent scientists, including Roger Revelle, future director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
In 1952, the trials of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobell attracted Dr. Urey's attention. The Rosenbergs, accused of atomic espionage and given a highly publicized and controversial trial, were eventually sentenced to death; Sobell, tried as a co-conspirator, was given a long prison sentence. These cases became causes celebres during in the postwar era. Reading the trial documents, Urey seriously questioned whether the Rosenbergs and Sobell had received justice from the U.S. courts. He publicly expressed his concern, urging clemency in letters to President Truman, the trial judge and the New York Times. Urey's efforts brought him a flood of mail, some critical, some hateful, some favorable. Among the favorable responses was a letter from Albert Einstein, who wrote to Urey: "Your intervention in the Rosenberg case has been one of my most heartening experiences in the human sphere."
Urey accepted a position at the University of California's Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla in 1958. Scripps director Roger Revelle was engaged in establishing a general campus of the University in La Jolla, soon to become the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Revelle had urged Urey to take the Scripps post, and Urey provided valuable assistance in developing the new campus. Many of Urey's Chicago colleagues also moved to UCSD, including Maria Mayer and Joseph Mayer. Leo Szilard came to La Jolla as a fellow of the newly established Salk Institute.
At UCSD, Urey formed the nucleus of the chemistry program, which later become a leading center in the field of cosmochemistry. As Professor of Chemistry-at-Large, he continued to teach and conduct active research on the campus. His studies extended over a broad range of interests, including the geophysics of the solid earth, geochemistry, the chronology of meteorites and the solar system, and the origin of meteorites. In 1966, the University of California Board of Regents voted to name UCSD's first academic building (formerly "Building B") "Harold and Frieda Urey Hall" in honor of both Dr. Urey and his wife Frieda. He was honored in 1970 with a newly created title: University Professor; he became Professor Emeritus in 1972.
Continuing his efforts on behalf of nuclear arms control, Urey became a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group with 2,300 members including seven Nobel laureates. In 1975 the organization petitioned President Gerald Ford to decrease the production of nuclear power plants. Urey himself was concerned with the safety of nuclear power and the need for a national plan to dispose of nuclear wastes. He feared that the global expansion of nuclear generating facilities could cause the spread of nuclear weapons. He took an active interest in the United States space program, particularly the Ranger and Apollo moon missions, and he chaired the University of California's Statewide Advisory Committee on Space Science from 1959 to 1961. Associated with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Urey served as consultant to the Lunar and Planetary Missions Board and was a member of the Planetology Committee. He personally analyzed samples of moon rock obtained by the moon missions.
In addition to the Nobel Prize, Urey received numerous awards and honors. He was awarded more than 20 honorary doctorates, over a dozen medals, and was a member or fellow of nearly 30 societies and academies. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson awarded him the National Medal of Science. Urey's bibliography of scientific publications exceeds 200 titles.
Harold Urey died at his La Jolla home in 1981. - Creation Date
- 1928-1981
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From the Harold Clayton Urey Papers. MSS 44. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego Library.
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