Philip Abelson, Chronicler Of Scientific Advances, 91

By JEREMY PEARCE

Published: August 8, 2004

Philip H. Abelson, a versatile scientist, editor and administrator who helped discover the element neptunium and later chronicled laboratory advances as editor of the journal Science, died on Aug. 1 in Bethesda, Md. He was 91. 

The cause was pneumonia, said a nephew, Dr. John N. Abelson, emeritus professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology, who is at work on a biography of his uncle. 

Dr. Abelson's interests spanned chemistry, geology, biology and medicine, but it was as a physicist that he aided in the discovery of neptunium, the 93rd element in the periodic table, in 1940.  Neptunium is a metal and a byproduct of uranium.  He worked with Edwin M. McMillan, who shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951 with Glenn T. Seaborg for their contributions in describing neptunium, plutonium and other transuranium elements. 

During World War II, Dr. Abelson continued his nuclear studies at the Naval Research Laboratory, exploring methods to split uranium isotopes in work that was later used in the design of nuclear-powered submarines.  Earlier, in 1939, he joined the Carnegie Institution of Washington, eventually rising to become the institution's president from 1971 to 1978. 

In 1962, Dr. Abelson embarked on a different aspect of his career when he became the editor of Science, a post he held for more than two decades, until 1982.  He wrote more than 500 editorials on subjects that ranged from medical research to national energy policies, and contributed to the journal until recently. 

Philip Hauge Abelson was born on April 27, 1913, in Tacoma, Wash. He earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and a master's degree in physics from Washington State College.  In 1939, he received a doctorate in nuclear physics from the University of California, Berkeley, where he met Dr. McMillan.  He served three times as acting executive director for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1974, 1975 and 1984. 

Dr. Abelson was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1987.  He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was given its public welfare medal.  He won the National Science Foundation's Vannevar Bush public service award in 1984.  Dr. Abelson also received honorary degrees from Yale, Tufts and Duke. 

His wife, Dr. Neva Martin Abelson, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, died in 2000.  The couple had resided in Washington. 

Dr. Abelson is survived by his daughter, Dr. Ellen A. Cherniavsky of Silver Spring, Md.; his nephew, of San Francisco; and two grandchildren.