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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
September ~ 8, ~ 907-September 8, ~ 99 ~
BY J. DAVID JACKSON AND W. K. H. PANOFSKY
WITH THE DEATH OF Edwin Mattison McMilIan on Sep-
tember 8, 1991, the woric! lost one of its great natural
scientists. We acivisecITy use the term "natural scientist" since
McMilIan's interests transcenclec! greatly that of his profes-
sion of physicist. They encompassed everything natural from
rocks through elementary particles to pure mathematics
and included an insatiable appetite for understanding ev-
erything from funciamental principles.
Edwin McMillan spent a large part of his professional life
in close association with Ernest 0. Lawrencei ant! succeeclec!
Lawrence as director of what is now the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory in 1958. Yet the two men conic! hardily be more
different. Lawrence was a man of great intuition, outgoing,
en c! a highly capable organizer of the work of many people.
Edwin McMillan was thoroughly analytical in whatever he
clic! en c! usually worker! alone or with few associates. He
clisTikoc! specialization en c! the division of physics cliviclec!
into theory en c! experiment. He remarkoc! at an interna-
tional high-energy physics meeting, "Any experimentalist,
unless proven a ciamn fool, shouic! be given one half year
to interpret his own experiment."
McMilIan's first en c! last publications illustrate the un-
usual breadth of his interests. While still an undergraduate
215
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B I O G RA P H I C A L
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student in 1927, he published a papers on the x-ray study
of alloys of lead and thallium, clearly a topic in chemistry.
At the time, he took many more courses in chemistry than
was customary for a physics major, and this publication was
undertaken at the suggestion of Linus Pauling. His last pa-
per,3 written together with the mathematician Richard P.
Brent, was on an improved algorithm for computing EuTer's
constant: the limit of the difference between the sum of
the inverse integers from ~ to n and the natural logarithm
of n, as nacho.
One of us 0.D.~.) recalls an incident that illustrates Ed
McMilIan's range in science. When Jackson corresponded
at the beginning of 1957 with Luis Alvarez and his col-
leagues about muon-catalyzed fusion, he was startled to re-
ceive facsimile copies of handwritten notes by McMilIan on
a calculation of the mu-mesic molecular formation process!
At that time, he knew McMilIan's name as the discoverer of
neptunium, the codiscoverer of plutonium, and the inven-
tor of phase stability in accelerators but never dreamt that
he was a molecular theorist! At the time, Ed was busy as
associate director under Lawrence. His molecular physics
Ph.D. thesis research with Condon could be the origin of
such expertise, but with McMilIan it could just as easily be
knowledge acquired for the fun of it.
The son of Edwin H. McMillan and Anna Maria Mattison,
Edwin M. McMilIan was born on September 18, 1907, in
Redondo Beach, California, both parents were Scots. He
was brought up in Pasadena, California, beyond age one
and a half. His father was a physician, as were the parents
of his wife Elsie McMilIan (born Blunter), who incidentally
is the sister of E. O. Lawrence's wife, Molly. McMillan is
survived by his wife and their three children (Ann Bradford
Chaikin, David Mattison McMilIan, and Stephen Walker
McMillan). They were a wonderful and harmonious family.
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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
217
As a chiTcI, McMillan built gadgets en c! macle use of the
proximity of the California Institute of Technology in at-
tencling lectures en c! seminars en c! getting acquainted! with
physicists there. After high school McMillan enterer! CalTech,
where he hac! a first-rate academic recorc! leacling to both
the B.S. en c! M.S. degrees. He completer! his work leacling
to the Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1932.
McMilIan's work can be separates! into five phases that
exhibit a great clear of overlap not surprising considering
the universality of McMillan's interests: ~ ~ ~ the early prewar
period, (2) studies of the transuranic elements, (3) military
work cluring WorIc! War II, (4) accelerator physics, en c! (5)
laboratory director. These phases were paralleled! by work
on advisory committees en c! other roles as a statesman of
science.
THE EARLY PREWAR PERIOD
McMilIan's Ph.D. thesis, uncler Professor E. U. Conclon,
examiner! the generation of a molecular beam of hyciro-
gen-chIoricle nuclei in a nonhomogeneous electric fielcI.4
In parallel, McMilIan received a thorough education in ex-
perimental nuclear physics at Princeton. He publisher! a
papers on the isotopic composition of lithium in the sun
from spectroscopic observations immediately after receiv-
ing his Ph.D. He then won a highly prizes! National Re-
search Council (NRC) fellowship, supporting him at any
university of his choice.
He accepted! the invitation of E. O. Lawrence to come to
Berkeley, where Lawrence was at the time engaged in ex-
ploring the experimental potential of the cyclotron. After
McMillan accepted! Lawrence's invitation, he cleclicatec! his
first two years to activities somewhat separate from the main-
stream activities of Lawrence's new Racliation Laboratory.
He intenclec! to measure the magnetic moment of the pro
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B I O G RA P H I C A L
EMOIRS
ton, but that plan came to naught when Otto Stern en c!
collaborators in Germany clic! the measurement. He contin-
ucc! to work on hyperfine structure as revealer! in optical
spectroscopy en c! publisher! papers on the nuclear magnetic
moment of ten talum6 as well as on the hyperfine structure
of the solar spectrum.7 But McMilIan became progressively
more involves! with the work on Lawrence's cyclotron, which
by early 1934 conic! produce a cleflectec! beam of 2.3-MeV
cleuterons. His experimental skill was recognizec! by Lawrence
en c! his collaborators en c! was put to increasing use on both
the cyclotron en c! its instrumentation en c! physical experi-
ments with the beam.
McMillan user! the extractec! cleuteron beam in collabo-
ration with M. Stanley Livingston to irradiate nitrogen to
produce the positron emitting i50. Again, McMilIan's skill
as a chemist was put to work. He user! a tracer technique in
which first nitrogen gas was bombarclec! en c! then mixer!
with oxygen en c! an excess of hydrogen. This mixture was
catalyzer! to water over heater! platinizec! asbestos, en c! the
water was collected! on anhycirous calcium chIoricle. The
radioactivity was shown to be localizes! in the calcium chIo-
ricle en c! absent elsewhere, proving that oxygen carrier! the
activity.8
This work was follower! by funciamental studies on the
absorption of gamma rays,9 which revealed the (at that time
new) process of electromagnetic pair procluction in the
Coulomb field! of a nucleus. The 5.4-MeV gamma ray pro-
duced by bombardment of fluorine with protons and also
the gamma rays of other isotopes were absorber! by foils of
aluminum, copper, tin, en c! leacI, enabling McMilIan to iso-
late the components of the absorption process. At 5.4 MeV,
electron-positron pair production is about one-half the to-
tal absorption cross-section in lead.
In 1935, with Lawrence en c! R. L. Thornton, McMillan
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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
219
stucliec! the radioactivity proclucec! when a variety of targets
are exposer! to a cleuteron beam.~° At cleuteron energies
below 2 MeV, the activity increases rapicIly with energy, as
expecter! from the quantum mechanical penetration of the
Coulomb barrier, first user! to explain alpha radioactivity
lifetimes by George Gamow. The experiments of McMilIan
en c! coworkers on (cI,p) reactions with energies up to 3.4
MeV shower! that the yielc! curves flattener! above 2 MeV,
even though the Coulomb barrier effects were expecter! to
be consiclerably steeper from conventional estimates of the
effective nuclear raclli. A cleuteron seemec! to be able to
have its neutron captures! by the target nucleus while its
proton remainec! relatively far away. These ciata intrigues! l.
Robert Oppenheimer en c! his student, Melba Phillips, who
then clevelopec! the theoretical explanation of the phenom-
enon: the small bincling energy, en c! therefore large size, of
the cleuteron permits it to be polarizer! in the nuclear Cou-
lomb fielcI, this polarization places the neutron within the
cleuteron close to the nucleus, accessible for capture, while
the proton is away from it. In essence, the proton becomes
a "spectator" of the process. The Oppenheimer-Phillips pro-
cess gives a quantitative explanation of the energy indepen-
clence of the yielc! curves en c! the predominance of the
(cI,p) reactions in cleuteron bombardments.
Following this work McMillan investigatec! the properties
of i°Be, with its extraordinarily long half-life for a light
element (approximately 2.5 million years). He pursued fur-
ther details of the properties of i°Be in later publications.
During that perioc! McMilIan clic! several aciclitional experi-
ments in what tociay has become nuclear chemistry, some
of them successful en c! some unsuccessful. At the same pe-
riod, he wrote a seminal paperi2 on the production of X
rays by the acceleration of very fast electrons, a subject in
which he maintainer! a lifelong interest.
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B I O G RA P H I C A L
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McMillan macle numerous experimental contributions to
the cyclotron, in particular to its beam-focusing properties,
to beam extraction, en c! to vacuum gauges. His creep uncler-
stancling of the factors that limit the energy attainable by
conventional cyclotrons is illustrates! by his correspondence
in late 1937 en c! early 1938 with Hans Bethel Bethe hac!
worker! with M. E. Rose at Cornell on the energy limit prob-
lem, en c! McMilIan was carrying out calculations at Berke-
ley with Robert R. Wilson developing orbit-tracing meth-
ocis. In 1937 Bethe sent an advance copy of the Bethe-Rose
paper to McMilIan. McMilIan fount! some errors in the pa-
per en c! shower! that the electrostatic defocusing effect of
the cyclotron clee's conic! be counteracted! by the insertion
of grids. McMilIan also unclerstooc! clearly the focusing ef-
fect of the raclial fall-off of the magnetic field! en c! the mag-
nitucle of the deviation from the synchronicity conclition in
the cyclotron proclucec! by that raclial fall-off, aciclec! to the
relativistic mass increase. Bethe suggester! that McMilIan
publish his finclings, but characteristically McMillan felt that
an aciclitional paper wouIc! be reclunciant. The correspon-
dence demonstrates McMilIan's deep quantitative mastery
of the subject while at the same time exhibiting his basic
humility. He preferred making an input to the Bethe-Rose
paper over cluttering up the literature with controversy.
STUDIES ON TRANSURANIC ELEMENTS
The discovery of fission of uranium by Hahn ant!
Strassmann in 1939 initiates! intense activity woric~wicle. At
Berkeley McMilIan first performer! a simple experiment to
measure the ranges of the energetic fission fragments by
exposing a thin layer of uranium oxide on paper sandwiched
between several thin aluminum foils on either side to the
neutrons from S-MeV deuterons striking a beryllium target
in the 37-inch cyclotron. The amounts of radioactivity in
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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
221
successive foils establishec! the maximum range of the frag-
ments as equivalent to approximately 2.2 centimeters in air.
He also user! cigarette papers insteac! of the aluminum foils
in another sandwich en c! follower! the radioactivity in clif-
ferent papers after bombardment, fincling the same time
clepenclence in all. In contrast, the activity associates! with
the layer of paper on which the uranium oxide hac! been
placer! hac! different components. In aciclition to the fission
fragment activity, there was one component with a twenty-
five-minute half-life and another of roughly two days.
McMilIan speculatec! that the twenty-five-minute activity was
239U, iclentifiec! earlier by Hahn en c! co-workers as a procI-
uct of resonant neutron capture in uranium.~3
The two-clay nonrecoiling activity intriguer! McMilIan.
Accorclingly, he bombarclec! thin ammonium uranate layers
clepositec! on a bakelite substrate en c! coverer! with cello-
phane (to catch the energetic fission fragments). After ex-
posure to the neutrons, the ammonium uranate was scraper!
off the bakelite en c! its activity followocI. At Tong times the
2.3-clay activity was dominant, at short times, the twenty-
three-minute half-life Of 239U preclominatecI. In contrast,
the cellophane shower! the characteristic power law clecay
associates! with a mixture of fission fragments of different
lifetimes. With the new activity physically separated, it was
possible to begin stucly of its chemical properties. As a pu-
tative new element next to uranium, the activity seemec!
likely to have chemical properties akin to rhenium. McMilIan
therefore enTistec! Emilio Segre, who was familiar with the
chemistry of rhenium from his discovery of a homolog,
technetium, in 1937. Segre found that the 2.3-day activity
behaves! like a rare earth, not like rhenium. Since rare earths
are prominent among the fission fragments, it appearec!
that the 2.3-day activity was one of those. After a gap in his
pursuit, McMillan had become persuaded by early 1940 that
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B I O G RA P H I C A L
EMOIRS
the nonrecoiling 2.3-day activity just could not be the decay
of a fission fragment. He began a set of experiments with
the new 60-inch cyclotron en c! its 16-MeV cleuterons. Two
observations confirmed! his belief as a certainty. One, using
cadmium absorbers to recluce the thermal neutrons, shower!
greatly reclucec! fission activity but left the two nonrecoiling
activities in the same relative proportion. The other, a fis-
sion product experiment with extremely thin colloclion
catcher foils, shower! that the range of the 2.3-clay "frag-
ments" was less than 0.! millimeter of air equivalent. The
2.3-clay activity conic! not be from fission, the twenty-three-
minute en c! 2.3-clay activities almost certainly were geneti-
cally relatecI. The beta clecay Of 239U was producing atoms
of a new element with Z = 93! McMilIan fount! chemically
that the 2.3-clay activity hac! some, but not all, the charac-
teristics of a rare earth.
Philip H. Abelson was a student at Berkeley in 1939, work-
ing on the chemistry of fission products en c! was familiar
with McMillan's first observations of the 2.3-clay activity. In
1939-40 at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C.,
Abelson attempter! (unknown to McMilIan) to separate the
2.3-day activity, initially with rare-earth chemistry, but found
his procedures inadequate. In May 1940, as McMilIan was
cloing his chemistry, Abelson came to Berkeley en c! they
began a collaboration. The key to successful chemistry, as
Abelson founcI, was control of the state of oxidation of the
material. In the reduced state the activity coprecipitates with
rare-earth fluorides, when in an oxiclizec! state it floes not.
In fact, the oxiclizec! state behaves similarly to uranium,
coprecipitating with sodium urany! acetate. On the other
hancI, uranium floes not precipitate in an HE solution with
SO2, while the 2.3-clay activity coprecipitates with rare-earth
carriers. Abelson and McMilIan were thus able to use an
"oxiciation-recluction cycle" to make a series of precipita
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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
223
lions of the 2.3-clay activity from a urany! solution en c! es-
tablish its growth from the twenty-three-minute 239U, thus
proving it to be an isotope of element 93. They searcher!
for alpha activity associates! with the clecay product of the
2.3-clay isotope (an isotope of element 94) en c! notes! that
it must be long-livecI. The work was submitter! to the Physi-
cal Review on May 27, 1940.~4 The technique of an oxicia
tion-recluction cycle former! the basis of all the transuranic
chemistry to follow.
After Abelson's return to Washington, McMillan turner!
to the search for the alpha activity of the daughter of 239Np
(as we now denote it). Strong samples of the 2.3-clay activity
clic! show some alpha particle emission, clistinguishec! from
possible natural uranium activity by greater range. With the
hope of producing a different isotope of neptunium en c! so
its clecay product, McMillan bombarclec! a uranium target
clirectly with 16-MeV cleuterons. A two-clay beta activity, with
1 1
more energetic beta particles than the earlier 2.3-clay cle-
cay, was observed, along with a consiclerably more intense
5-MeV alpha activity (now known to be from 238Pu, ninety-
two-year half-life). He trier! to separate the alpha activity
chemically, eliminating protactinium, uranium, en c! nep
tunium as species, while showing that it behaves! similarly
to thorium en c! 4-valent uranium.
In November 1940 McMillan left Berkeley for military
work at MIT. Glenn T. Seaborg, who, with colleague I. W.
Kennedy en c! graduate student A. C. Wahl, hac! perfected
the oxiciation-recluction technique for isolating neptunium,
wrote to McMilIan to say that they wouIc! "be very glac! to
carry on in his absence as his collaborators" in the search
for element 94.~5 McMillan replier! (in Seaborg's worcis),
"informing me that he will not be back soon in Berkeley
en c! it wouIc! please him very much if I continue to work on
elements 93 en c! 94.~6 McMillan's letter explicates! his own
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B I O G RA P H I C A L
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finclings on the physical en c! chemical characteristics of the
various activities.
Following McMilIan's leacI, by late February 1941 Seaborg,
Kennedy, en c! Wah! hac! macle definite the discovery of the
ninety-two-year isotope of element 94 (238Pu). A short pa-
per on the joint work with McMilIan was submitter! to the
Physical Review on January 2S, ~941 (before the final proof
of separation from thorium hac! been madly but was volun-
tarily withheld from publication until 1946.~7
For his discovery of neptunium with Abelson en c! of plu-
tonium with Kennedy, Seaborg, en c! Wahl, McMilIan sharer!
with Seaborg the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1951.
MILITARY WORK DURING WORLD WAR II
McMilIan's first assignment at MIT in November 1940
was work on airborne microwave racier at the newly estab-
lished MIT Radiation Laboratory. The work initially capital-
~zec! on his technical en c! physical ingenuity, but when em-
phasis shifter! from incliviclual invention to collaborative
engineering, McMilIan mover! to the U.S. Navy Raciar en c!
Sounc! Laboratory in San Diego in 1941. There he inventec!
en c! clevelopec! a repeater for underwater echoes that greatly
extended the detection range of undersea warfare devices.
He was then recruited by J. Robert Oppenheimer, who had
been appointed director of the Los Alamos weapons labo-
ratory to be en c! server! as his principal aciviser on practical
technical issues, starting in the fall of 1942.
McMillan's nuclear weapons work started with the site
selection of Los Alamos. He then led the development of
the gun-type weapon, a device in which MU bodies are
firer! at one another with a gun to constitute a critical as-
sembly. A requirement for such a crevice to work meant the
clevelopment at a separate site near Los Alamos of gun bar-
rels of Tower weight to propel objects at higher speed than
. .
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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
23
3,300 at Livermore. The Berkeley part was multiclisciplinary,
with the major focus on physics, with numerous accelera-
tors, but also hac! divisions of nuclear chemistry, biology
en c! medicine, en c! bioorganic chemistry. The vigorous par-
ticle physics research program at the Bevatron, with the 72-
inch bubble chamber en c! a variety of electronic particle
detectors, cirew physicists from arounc! the woric! en c! macle
the Berkeley laboratory the center of high-energy physics
from the late 1950s to the micI-1960s. Work with the IS4-
inch cyclotron en c! McMillan's 300-MeV synchrotron remainec!
active.
The first half of McMilIan's tenure as director was per-
haps the high point of LBL, at least in high-energy physics.
The latter part of his term saw changes, both in the scien-
tific effort at the laboratory en c! in its funcling from Wash-
ington. By the early 1960s accelerators elsewhere achiever!
higher energies, en c! so the particle energy frontier began
to move away from Berkeley. To McMilIan higher-energy
facilities were clesirable en c! inevitable. In fact, he playact an
important role in the creation of Fermilab, serving on the
boars! of the Universities Research Association in its forma-
tive years.
McMilIan proviclec! scientific en c! administrative leacler-
ship to the laboratory in increasingly complex times, with
particle physics funding leveling off en c! Livermore begin-
ning to dwarf Berkeley.25 Maintaining a strong and diverse
research program in physics and the other fields with lim-
itec! resources was clifficult. His tendency was to let the heacis
of the scientific divisions have free rein, but he clic! not
hesitate to arbitrate conflicting views ant! set the laboratory's
course when necessary. He was successful in maintaining a
strong multiclisciplinary laboratory, with growth in new fielcis
such as energy conservation en c! the environment as oIcler
programs leveled off.
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B I O G RA P H I C A L
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In the later years, the "Rae! Lab" sufferer! internal en c!
external stresses: internal, as some researchers clisagreec!
on priorities among existing activities en c! cIamorec! for scarce
research clollars for alternative projects less firmly connectec!
to the laboratory's mission, external, as the partnership be-
tween the laboratory en c! the Atomic Energy Commission
(ERDA after 1974) en c! the U.S. Congress began to erocle.
Moreover, the Vietnam war raiser! tensions, particularly on
university campuses.
Lawrence hac! run the Racliation Laboratory from the
beginning as a personal empire, en c! this benevolent stew-
arciship from the top continues! uncler McMilIan, although
he clic! not enjoy the exercise of power.
By the late 1960s, protesters against the Vietnam war en c!
the military-inclustrial complex hac! tarrec! the Racliation
Laboratory as a "bomb factory" en c! worse. The distinction
between Livermore en c! Berkeley, while fully unclerstooc!
within the scientific community, was lost on the average
person. The proximity of the Berkeley part of the Raclia-
tion Laboratory to the Berkeley campus macle it an easy
target for abuse. Within the laboratory tensions were ris-
ing, fuelec! by some faculty en c! graduate students who thought
that the war was a legitimate topic for noontime discussion
within the laboratory en c! members of the lab staff who clic!
not. The issue hinged largely on conflicting views of the
laboratory: a part of the academic campus, where free speech
shouIc! prevail, or a governmental research enterprise, where
politics was inappropriate.
Attempts to hoIc! open meetings to discuss the Vietnam
war were initially met with heavy-hanclec! prohibition en c!
cliscipline. Soon, however, McMillan saw that the protesters
were sincere en c! responsible opponents of the war but not
of the Berkeley Laboratory. In his quiet, cautious way, he
aciciressec! the perceived lack of academic freedoms at the
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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
233
laboratory. In the spring of 1971 he appointed an ad hoc
committee of staff en c! faculty to ciraw up rules for incle-
penclent open meetings at the laboratory. He promulgates!
these rules in September 1971, but the general course! of
the regents of the University of California promptly cle-
manclec! that the rules be withdrawn. McMilIan clug in his
heels because he knew that the committee hac! transmitter!
all earlier cirafts of its proposer! rules to the general coun-
sel for review. McMilIan en c! the committee rejectee! most
of the criticisms as trivial, macle a few cosmetic changes,
en c! left the rules in place to see them serve a useful pur-
pose, without adverse consequences. McMilIan clic! not like
conflict, but he held strong principles. When he saw that
something was fair en c! reasonable, he stuck to it over all
objections.
Another example of McMillan's clear vision was the deci-
sion to separate Livermore from Berkeley. The turmoil in
the country at large over the Vietnam war, the antimilitary
sentiments, en c! the perceives! security issues argucc! for
separation. Voices at Livermore urged separation, voices at
Berkeley urger! the status quo both for the same reason,
money. The Livermore voices believer! that the Berkeley
side was riding the Livermore juggernaut, the Berkeley voices
fearer! loss of support with separation. McMilIan recom-
menclec! separation en c! so became director of the smaller
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Funcling clic! change, but
not because of the separation en c! not for the worse. The
subsequent profounc! changes in the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory, with particle physics playing an ever-clecreasing
role, occurred under subsequent directors. McMilIan stepped
clown as laboratory director at the ens! of 1973 en c! retiree!
from the Berkeley faculty in June 1974. He continues! to
participate in the laboratory's work until he suffered a se-
ries of clisabling strokes in 1984.
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B I O G RA P H I C A L
CONCLUSION
EMOIRS
The above account of the five major phases of McMilIan's
contributions fails far short of describing his total contribu-
tions as a scholar, teacher, en c! human being. McMillan was
an excellent teacher both insicle en c! outside the classroom.
His formal courses were extremely well received, with their
clarity en c! total absence of preaching from on high. He
instiller! in his students an appreciation of physics in its
funciamental aspects. He lover! to explain scientific facts as
well as gadgets to younger audiences, with his effectiveness
resting entirely on creep knowlecige combiner! with an ab-
sence of showmanship.
McMillan server! on the then General Advisory Commit-
tee to the Atomic Energy Commission from 1954 to 1958
en c! participates! as a member of scientific policy commit-
tees en c! program advisory committees to several laborato-
ries. In committees McMilIan tenclec! to be relatively taci-
turn, but when he spoke up his remarks were decisive en c!
to the point. When President Eisenhower in 1959 announcer!
his decision to built! the Stanforc! Linear Accelerator Cen-
ter, he saicI, "I am toIc! by the scientists that this is the most
extraordinary thing that has been attempted . . .", the spokes-
man referrer! to by the President was Ec! McMilIan.
McMilIan's contributions to the progress of science clic!
not go unappreciated. As mentioned above, he shared the
Nobel Prize with Glenn Seaborg for his discoveries of tran-
suranic elements, en c! he sharer! the Atoms for Peace Prize
with VIaclimir I. VeksTer for the discovery of phase stability.
He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in
1947. He was awarded the National Medal of Science in
1990. Since by then he was confiner! to a wheelchair, the
award was presented to his son, Stephen, by the President.
McMilIan receiver! numerous other awards en c! honorary
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EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
235
degrees, but none of this recognition affecter! his general
humility. He clic! his work quietly, spoke concisely, ant! seemec!
to enjoy everything he was cloing. He kept up with evolving
knowlecige in a surprisingly large number of fielcis.
In his private life McMilIan was a goof! family man en c!
was greatly supported in all he did by his wife Elsie. He
likes! hiking en c! exploring. His particular love was the Anza
Borrego desert region, where he collectec! rocks en c! con-
cretions that were spreac! arounc! his office, house, en c! gar-
clen. He was interested in plants en c! grew orchids as well as
insect-eating Venus Fly Traps.
In many of the obituaries Ec! McMilIan was flagger! as an
atomic bomb pioneer. Yet while the very discovery of pluto-
nium en c! his subsequent work at Los Alamos were major
contributions to the nuclear weapons program, his own views
on nuclear weapons became increasingly critical after the
war. He shunner! all CoIc! War rhetoric en c! remainec! cle
tachec! cluring the Korean War from efforts at Berkeley aimec!
at replenishing the plutonium supply when it appearec! that
the Uniter! States might be cut off from overseas supplies
of uranium. The builclup of nuclear weapons cluring the
Coic! War lee! him to state publicly, "This country has in its
hands some increclibly powerful weapons. The way our gov-
ernment clears with the question of nuclear disarmament is
shameful a disgrace to our nation."
Ec! McMilIan was a humble unassuming person. He en-
joyoc! his science, all of nature, his friends, en c! his family.
His great contributions seemec! to flow naturally from him
without apparent effort but as a simple product of his mincI.
The worIc! is richer through Ec! McMilIan's contributions
en c! poorer through his cleath.
NOTES
WE THANK EDWARD J. LOFGREN for opening his files on McMillan
OCR for page 236
236
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
to us and Philip H. Abelson for a thoughtful perspective on McMillan's
research in the prewar years.
38
1. National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, vol. 41, p.
251. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1970.
2. E. McMillan and L. Pauling. 7. Am. Chem. Soc. 49~1927~:666-
69.
3. R. P. Brent and E. M. McMillan. Math. Comput. 34~1980~:305.
4. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 42~1932~:905.
5. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 44~1932~:240.
6. N. S. Grace and E. M. McMillan. Physics Rev. 44~1933~:325.
7. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 45~1934~:134.
8. M. S. Livingston and E. M. McMillan. Physics Rev. 46~1934~:437
9. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 46~1934~:325.
10. E. O. Lawrence, E. M. McMillan, and R. L. Thornton. Physics
Rev. 48~1935~:493-99.
11. E. M. McMillan and S. Ruben. Phys. Rev. 70~1946~:123-26.
12. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 47~1935~:801.
13. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 55~1939~:510.
14. E. M. McMillan and P. H. Abelson. Phys. Rev. 57~1940~:1185.
15. Quotation from The Plutonium Story, The Journals of Professor
Glenn T. Seaborg, 1939-46, p. 13. Battelle Press, 1994.
16. Ibid. p. 14.
17. G. T. Seaborg, E. M. McMillan, T. W. Kennedy, and A. C.
Wahl. Phys. Rev. 69~1946~:366.
18. Reminiscences of Los Alamos, ed. L. Badash, T. O. Hirschfelder,
and H. P. Broida, pp.13-20, 41-48. Holland: Reidel Publishing Company,
1980.
19. In a linear accelerator the situation is reversed. Here the
stable phase angle exists at the rising part of the rf amplitude; a
particle whose energy and therefore velocity are below the norm
arrives late and therefore experiences a larger radiofrequency am-
plitude, with the converse being true for a particle whose energy
and velocity are above the norm.
20. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 68~1945~:143-44.
21. V. Veksler. Phys. Rev. 68 ~ 1945 ~ :143.
22. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 69~1946~:534.
OCR for page 237
EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
237
23. E. M. McMillan and T. M. Peterson. Science 109~1949~:438-39
and with R. S. White, 110 ~ 1949) :579-83.
24. E. M. McMillan. Phys. Rev. 80~1950~:493.
25. By 1965 Livermore and its ancillary sites had 5,300 employ-
ees, and Berkeley had 3,200; the Livermore budget was two and a
half times Berkeley's. McMillan was nominally director of the whole
laboratory. When the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the Lawrence
Livermore Laboratory came into separate existences in 1970, Livermore
was more than twice as large, with a budget more than three times
that of Berkeley.
OCR for page 238
238
B I O G RA P H I C A L
S E L E C T E D
EMOIRS
B I B L I O G RAP H Y
1927
With L. Pauling. An X-ray study of the alloys of lead and thallium. 7.
Am. Chem. Soc. 49:666-69.
1932
Deflection of a beam of HCL molecules in a non-homogeneous
electric field. Phys. Rev. 42:905.
1933
The isotopic constitution of lithium in the sun. Phys. Rev. 44:240.
With N. S. Grace. Hyperfine structure in the tantalum arc spec-
trum. Phys. Rev. 44:949-50.
1934
Absorption measurements of hard gamma-rays from fluorine bom-
barded by protons. Phys. Rev. 46:325.
With M. S. Livingston. The production of radioactive oxygen. Phys.
Rev. 46:437-38.
Some gamma-rays accompanying artificial nuclear disintegrations.
Phys. Rev. 46:868-73.
1935
With M. S. Livingston. Artificial radioactivity produced by the deu-
teron bombardment of nitrogen. Phys. Rev. 47:452-57.
The production of X-radiation by very fast electrons. Phys. Rev. 47:801.
With E. O. Lawrence and R. L. Thornton. The transmutation func-
tions for some cases of deuteron-induced radioactivity. Phys. Rev.
48:493-99.
1939
Radioactive recoils from uranium activated with neutrons. Phys. Rev.
55:510.
1940
With P. H. Abelson. Radioactive element 93. Phys. Rev. 57:1185-86.
OCR for page 239
EDWIN MATTISON MCMILLAN
1945
239
The synchrotron a proposed high energy particle accelerator. Phys.
Rev. 68: 143-44.
1946
With G. T. Seaborg, J. W. Kennedy, and A. C. Wahl. Radioactive
element 94 from deuterons on uranium. Phys. Rev. 69:366-67.
1947
Further remarks on reciprocity. 7. Acous. Soc. Am. 19:922.
With A. C. Helmholz and D. C. Sewell. Angular distribution of neu-
trons from targets bombarded by 190 Mev deuterons. Phys. Rev.
72: 1003-7.
1949
With J. M. Peterson and R. S. White. Production of mesons by X-
rays. Science 110:579-83.
1950
The origin of cosmic rays. Phys. Rev. 79:498-501.
The relation between phase stability and first-order focusing in lin-
ear accelerators. Phys. Rev. 80:493.
1952
The transuranium elements; early history. In Les Prix Nobel en 1951,
pp. 165-73. Stockholm: The Nobel Foundation.
1959
History of the cyclotron, part 2. Phys. Today 12~10~:24-34.
1966
Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler ~ Obituary) . Phys. Today 1 9 (Nov. ): 1 04-5.
Correction, ibid 19 (Dec. ~ :14.
1979
Early history of particle accelerators. In Nuclear Physics in Retrospect,
Proceedings of a Symposium on the 1930's, ed. R. H. Stuewer, pp.
111-55. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
OCR for page 240
240
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1980
With R. P. Brent. Some new algorithms for high-precision computa-
tion of Euler's constant. Math. Comput. 34:305-12.
1984
History of the synchrotron. Phys. Today 37~2~:31-37.
OCR for page 241
Representative terms from entire chapter:
edwin mattison
