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CHEMIST

Willard Libby

1908 - 1980

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Willard Frank Libby (December 17, 1908 – September 8, 1980) was an American physical chemist noted for his role in the 1949 development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology and palaeontology. For his contributions to the team that developed this process, Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960. A 1931 chemistry graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, from which he received his doctorate in 1933, he studied radioactive elements and developed sensitive Geiger counters to measure weak natural and artificial radioactivity. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Willard Libby has received more than 353,477 page views. His biography is available in 60 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 57 in 2019). Willard Libby is the 102nd most popular chemist (up from 108th in 2019), the 765th most popular biography from United States (up from 869th in 2019) and the 14th most popular American Chemist.

Willard Libby is most famous for his research in the field of radiocarbon dating. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1960 for his work on radiocarbon dating.

Memorability Metrics

  • 350k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 63.88

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 60

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 11.28

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.54

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

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Among CHEMISTS

Among chemists, Willard Libby ranks 102 out of 509. Before him are Manfred Eigen, Norman Haworth, Vladimir Prelog, Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted, Gerhard Ertl, and Yves Chauvin. After him are James B. Sumner, John Newlands, Henry Hallett Dale, Robert Robinson, Carl Ferdinand Cori, and Antoni Grabowski.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1908, Willard Libby ranks 36. Before him are Carole Lombard, Manoel de Oliveira, William Saroyan, Dmitry Ustinov, Werner von Haeften, and Hannes Alfvén. After him are John Kenneth Galbraith, Balthus, Cesare Pavese, Ilya Frank, Joseph Rotblat, and Alfred Hershey. Among people deceased in 1980, Willard Libby ranks 36. Before him are Marcelo Caetano, Gregory Bateson, Óscar Romero, John Bonham, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and Hans Morgenthau. After him are Alexander Oparin, William Howard Stein, Mae West, Alejo Carpentier, Marian Rejewski, and Fritz Strassmann.

Others Born in 1908

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Others Deceased in 1980

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Willard Libby ranks 765 out of 18,182. Before him are Larry Ellison (1944), Michael Rockefeller (1938), Richard Dean Anderson (1950), Bill Russell (1934), John Cassavetes (1929), and Harry Belafonte (1927). After him are Anne Baxter (1923), Hermann Joseph Muller (1890), Kamala Harris (1964), James B. Sumner (1887), Lana Turner (1921), and Ursula K. Le Guin (1929).

Others born in United States

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Among CHEMISTS In United States

Among chemists born in United States, Willard Libby ranks 14. Before him are John Howard Northrop (1891), Theodore William Richards (1868), Gilbert N. Lewis (1875), Marshall Warren Nirenberg (1927), Edward Adelbert Doisy (1893), and Harold Urey (1893). After him are James B. Sumner (1887), Wendell Meredith Stanley (1904), Stanford Moore (1913), William Howard Stein (1911), Glenn T. Seaborg (1912), and Robert Burns Woodward (1917).

American born Chemists

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