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Darleane C. Hoffman, nuclear chemist, was awarded the prestigious Priestly Medal by the American Chemical Society in March 2000, "In recognition of the pioneering work she has done for almost 50 years" (see p 31, C&E News, March 27, 2000). At about the time this award was announced, the research group she codirects with Kenneth Gregorich and Heino Nitsche at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in California created the superheavy elements 118, 116, and 114.
Darleane was born on November 8, 1926 in Terril, Iowa. She and her brother, Sherril, were the only children of Carl and Elverna Christian. After high school, she attended Iowa State College (now Iowa State University of Science and Technology). While taking freshman chemistry from Nellie Naylor, she switched from an applied art major to chemistry because Naylor was an inspirational and gifted teacher. Darleane graduated with a B.S. in chemistry in 1948. She remained at Iowa State for graduate school, earning a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1951. Shortly after that, she married fellow graduate student Marvin Hoffman. While he finished his Ph.D. thesis, Darleane went to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 1952, Marvin accepted a position at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Darleane was also able to secure a position there in early 1953. Darleane and Marvin Hoffman had two children, Maureane, born in 1957 and Daryl, born in 1959. Maureane is a professor at Duke University Medical School, and Daryl is a surgeon practicing in Palo Alto, California.
Darleane Hoffman worked at Los Alamos for about thirty-one years, primarily searching for new elements and isotopes in the debris from nuclear tests. She also studied the spontaneous fission of the known fermium isotopes also isolated from the debris. She applied her expertise to the problem of nuclide migration in the environment, which led to the development of the Yucca Mountain Project, an underground repository for nuclear waste.
In 1984, Hoffman accepted a position as full professor in the chemistry department of the University of California, Berkeley. She concurrently became leader of the Heavy Element Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group in the Nuclear Science Division.
Hoffman retired in 1991, but has continued to be extremely active in superheavy element research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and other endeavors such as the Glenn T. Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science, which she helped to establish. She has been awarded some of the most prestigious awards in chemistry: the Garvan Medal in 1991, the National Medal of Science in 1997, and the ACS Award for Nuclear Chemistry (the only woman to receive this award). She has published a book entitled The Transuranium People: The Inside Story, which she coauthored with Seaborg and Ghiorso.
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