Leon O. Morgan

Leon Owen Morgan (Oklahoma City, United States, October 25, 1919 – Austin, Texas, USA, July 29, 2002) was an American chemist and professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. He co-discovered the chemical element americium.
==Academic Training==
Morgan was born in Oklahoma City in 1919. He graduated summa cum laude from Oklahoma City University in 1941. He then entered the University of Texas at Austin, earning his master's degree in chemistry in 1942.
===Early Career===
During World War II, Morgan worked on the Manhattan Project, aiming to develop the atomic bomb. He was assigned to the University of Chicago, where he joined the Nuclear Chemistry Metallurgy Research Group under Nobel Laureate Glenn T. Seaborg. There, he worked on the chemistry of plutonium processing, which led to his involvement in the isolation of curium and the discovery of americium (element 95) in 1944-45. After the war, Morgan completed his PhD under Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1947.
==Scientific Career==
===Search for New Elements===
Morgan was part of the Laboratory of Metallurgy (LabMet) at the University of Chicago, directed by Glenn T. Seaborg. With sufficient plutonium available, Seaborg instructed chemists Ralph A. James and Leon O. Morgan to irradiate plutonium in the Berkeley cyclotron, sending samples to Chicago for analysis by Albert Ghiorso. They confirmed the presence of americium by identifying characteristic alpha particles emitted by the activated samples.
===Discovery of Americium===
Americium (atomic number 95) was discovered in 1944-45 by Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Leon O. Morgan, and Albert Ghiorso by irradiating plutonium with neutrons in the 60-inch cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. The element is named after The element is named after America, especially the United States of America.
===Academic Career===
In 1947, after completing his PhD, Morgan joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, where he retired as professor emeritus in 1993. He initiated a nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry program focusing on elements such as tungsten, rhenium, and osmium, and the study of electrochemical processes. 
He directed the first-year chemistry program, taught various classes, and supervised many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. In the mid-1950s, Morgan investigated nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, contributing to the development of the Solomon-Bloembergen-Morgan (SBM) theory, which laid the groundwork for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a critical diagnostic tool in medicine.
Morgan served in various capacities at the university, including graduate advisor in chemistry, chairman of the Graduate School, member of the University Intercollegiate Athletics Council, and chairman of the Advisory Committee after his retirement.
His later research focused on the dissolution of transition metal coordination complexes, emphasizing biological interest structures like the iron-porphyrin structures in hemoglobin and cytochrome-c.
===Other Positions===
Beyond his academic career, Morgan consulted with colleagues at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico and was an associate editor of the ACS Journal of Chemistry Physics in 1964.
===Death===
Leon Owen Morgan passed away on July 29, 2002, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 82.
Category:1919 births
Category:2002 deaths
Category:People from Oklahoma City
Category:American people