克拉麗絲·菲爾斯

Early life and education

Phelps was part of the Tennessee Aquatic Project and Development Group (TAP), which is a 非營利組織 for youth. Phelps earned a 理學士 in 化學 from 田納西州立大學 in 2003.

U.S. Navy

At the U.S. Navy, she worked in areas like 核動力, reactor theory, and 熱力學. In the Navy, she lived and worked on board an 航空母艦 (a large military ship that carries 固定翼飛機) called the 隆納·雷根號航空母艦. She helped maintain the two nuclear reactors on the ship.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In 2009, Phelps joined the 橡樹嶺國家實驗室. They use Oak Ridge's nuclear reactors to learn about different kinds of 同位素 and how they work.

Work on tennessine

At Oak Ridge, Phelps was part of the team that helped discover a new 元素 (消歧義), number 117, called 鿬. Phelps is thought to be the first African-American woman to help discover an element.
Element 117 is called 鿬. It is the second-heaviest element that has been discovered. Several laboratories worked together to discover tennessine. They discovered tennessine by creating it in a nuclear reactor. Scientists created tennessine by shooting 鈣 isotopes at 鉳 isotopes. The two isotopes joined together–called 核融合–and created a new element, tennessine.

Work on berkelium

Berkelium is one of the most dangerous and radioactive elements. Oak Ridge was the only place in the world where 鉳 could be made for the experiment (test). After the berkelium was made, it had to be purified (cleaned) to make it ready for the experiment. Berkelium has a half-life of only 310 days. This means that after 310 days, half of the berkelium will disappear because of radioactive decay. Oak Ridge could only make a small amount of berkelium (less than 30 milligrams). They had to work fast to purify it before it was lost because of radioactive decay.
Phelps and two of her co-workers worked for three months to purify the berkelium. They did it and only lost less than one 千克 of berkelium. Phelps called the purification a tedious process that involved many steps. After they were done, they sent the very pure berkelium to another laboratory in 杜布納, Russia, called the 杜布納聯合原子核研究所 (JINR). There, scientists fused the berkelium with calcium to create tennessine. They named the new element "tennessine" after 田納西州, the US state where Oak Ridge resides.
In 2013, Phelps became the manager of Oak Ridge's programs that make the isotopes 鎳-63 and 硒-75. She has also studied isotopes of 鈽 and 錼, which are used by the 美國國家航空暨太空總署 (NASA) to power spaceships. Phelps also studies isotopes that are used for medical research and treatments, like 錒, 鑭, 銪, and 釤. Phelps has studied Electrophoretic deposition with 鉲-252 for the Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade project (CARIBU). Oak Ridge makes most of the world's californium, which is used in cancer treatments.

Memberships and awards

In 2017, Phelps won the 基督教女青年會 Knoxville Tribute to Women Technology, Research, and Innovation Award. This award recognizes "local women who lead their fields in technology and excel in community service". Phelps is a member of the 美國化學學會. Phelps helped start a program to teach robotics, drones, circuitry, and coding to inner city high school students in 諾克斯維爾, TN. On June 3, 2019, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) nominated Phelps for the IUPAC Periodic Table of Younger Chemists "for her outstanding commitment to research and public engagement, as well as being an important advocate for diversity".

Wikipedia controversy

Phelps' contribution to the discovery of Element 117 was the subject of controversy after her article was twice deleted after discussion from the 英語維基百科.
As a result of the controversy on May 1, 2019 Kit Chapman wrote that Phelps was "...the first African American woman." to be part of a team that has discovered a new element. In response to claims no expert had made the claim.