caption doctoral_advisor thesis_year death_date death_place birth_place thesis_title nationality work_institutions birth_date known_for prizes image article_title name alma_mater
frank spedding gilbert n. lewis 1929 15 december 1984 ames , iowa hamilton , ontario line the visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum absorption spectra in solids at low temperatures in united states cornell ames laboratory university cavendish laboratory iowa state university metallurgical laboratory 22 october 1902 ames process irving award -lrb- 1952 -rrb- james douglas gold medal -lrb- 1961 langmuir -rrb- francis j. clamer medal -lrb- 1969 -rrb- award -lrb- 1933 -rrb- william h. nichols file : frank_spedding . jpg frank spedding
 frank spedding university , m.s. & nbsp ; 1926 -rrb- university of california of , berkeley -lrb- ph.d. & nbsp ; 1929 -rrb- michigan -lrb- b.s. & nbsp ; 1925
frank spedding

frank harold spedding -lrb- october 22 , 1902 -- december 15 , 1984 -rrb- was a canadian american chemist .
he was a renowned expert on rare earth elements , and on extraction of metals from minerals .
his uranium extraction process helped make it possible for the manhattan project to build the first atomic bombs .
a graduate of the university of michigan and university of california , berkeley , spedding became an assistant professor and head of the department of physical chemistry at iowa state college in 1937 .
his efforts at building up the school were so successful that he would spend the rest of his career there , becoming a professor of chemistry in 1941 , a professor of physics in 1950 , a professor of metallurgy in 1962 , and ultimately professor emeritus in 1973 .
he founded the institute for atomic research and the ames laboratory of the atomic energy commission , and directed the ames laboratory from its founding in 1947 until 1968 .
spedding developed an ion exchange method of separating and purifying rare earth elements using ion exchange resins , and later used ion exchange to separate isotopes of individual elements , including hundreds of grams of almost pure nitrogen-15 .
he published over 250 peer-reviewed papers , and held 22 patents in his own name and jointly with others .
some 88 students received their ph.d. degree under his supervision .
