Frank Spedding

His professor, Moses Gomberg, recognised this as being the same as the (incorrect) model advanced by Albert Ladenburg in 1869.

At Gomberg's suggestion, Spedding applied to the University of California, Berkeley, to study for his doctorate under Gilbert N. Lewis.

Gomberg wrote a recommendation so that Spedding was not only accepted, but given a teaching fellowship as well.

Frank Harold Spedding (22 October 1902 – 15 December 1984) was a Canadian American chemist.

He was a renowned expert on rare earth elements, and on extraction of metals from minerals.

The uranium extraction process helped make it possible for the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs.

Spedding was born on 22 October 1902, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, the son of Howard Leslie Spedding and Mary Ann Elizabeth (Marshall) Spedding.

Soon after he was born, the family moved to Michigan, and then Chicago.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen through his father.

The family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his father worked as a photographer, in 1918.

He entered the University of Michigan in 1920, receiving a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in chemical engineering in 1925 and a Master of Science (M.S.) in analytical chemistry the following year.

As an undergraduate, Spedding took issue with the prevailing explanation by Friedrich August Kekulé of how the six carbon atoms in benzene hold together and proposed an alternate explanation.

Under Lewis's supervision, Spedding earned his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in 1929, writing his thesis on "Line absorption spectra in solids at low temperatures in the visible and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum".

It was published that year in the Physical Review.

Spedding's graduation coincided with the onset of the Great Depression, and jobs became hard to find.

Spedding received a National Research Fellowship from 1930 to 1932, enabling him to stay at Berkeley and continue his research into the spectra of solids.

While hiking in northern California, he met Ethel Annie MacFarlane, who shared his passion for camping, hiking and mountain climbing.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she was a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Toronto, where she had earned a master's degree in history.

When they met, she was teaching at Victoria High School in Victoria, British Columbia.

They were married on 21 June 1931.

From 1932 to 1934, Spedding worked for Lewis as a chemistry instructor.

Around this time, he became interested in the chemistry of the rare earths.

These were expensive and hard to find, and generally available only in minute amounts.

In 1933 he won the Irving Langmuir Award for most outstanding young chemist.

The award came with a cash prize of $1,000.

He borrowed money to travel to Chicago to collect it.

While he was there, he was approached by a man offering several pounds of europium and samarium.

His benefactor was Herbert Newby McCoy, a retired chemistry professor from the University of Chicago, who had obtained a supply of these elements from the Lindsay Light and Chemical Company, where they were a byproduct of thorium production.

A few weeks later, Spedding received a package in the mail containing jars of the metals.

His intention was to study in Germany under James Franck and Francis Simon, but they fled Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power in March 1933.

Instead he went to the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in England, where he was welcomed by Ralph H. Fowler.

In 1934, Spedding was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, allowing him to study in Europe.

To save money, Spedding and his wife travelled to Europe by heading westward across the Pacific.

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.

They had a daughter, Mary Anne Elizabeth, who was born in 1939.

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 co-founded, along with Dr. Harley Wilhelm, 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.