• Robert A. Canalas (MS, 1967) showed that Earth's apparent deficit of xenon might be caused by selective adsorption of this heaviest noble gas on carbonaceous and sedimentary deposits.

    "Terrestrial abundance of noble gases", J. Geophys. Res. 73 (1968) 3331.
 
  • Jane Hanisch Bennett (MS, 1968) used neutron activation analysis (NAA) to measure iodine and uranium in meteorites and terrestrial samples. The results were used to advance our understanding of the geochemistry of these elements and their association with extinct I-129 and Pu-244 from the supernova explosion at the birth of the solar system.

    "On the origin of noble gas anomalies in Canyon Diablo graphite", Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 3 (1967) 95.
 
  • Gary A. Bennett (MS, 1969) conducted our earliest analysis of deep well gases in search of the decay products of extinct iodine-129 and plutonium-244 inside the Earth from the supernova explosion at the birth of the solar system.

    "Xenon in natural gases," Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 34 (1970) 593.
 

  • E. Calvin Alexander, Jr. Jr. (Ph.D, 1970) showed that the in situ decay of extinct nuclides, like iodine-129, generated as much decay products in ordinary iron meteorites as in so-called "primitive" carbonaceous meteorites. Calvin had published twelve papers on a wide range of topics by the time he completed his PhD degree here. He then went to UC-Berkeley and measured the fission yields of man-made Pu-244 to confirm the presence of this extinct nuclide from the r-process of nucleo-synthesis in the supernova explosion at the birth of the solar system.
    "Isotopic anomalies of krypton and xenon in Canyon Diablo graphite," Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 2 (1967) 220.

 
  • Edward W. Hennecke (M.S., 1971) measured and reported evidence that isotopes of the heavy noble gases in ordinary meteorites have been sorted by mass.

    "Mass fractionation and the isotopic anomalies of xenon and krypton in ordinary chondrites," Z. Naturforsch. 20a, (1971) 1980.
 

  • Victor J. Becker (M.S., 1971) used neutron activation to determine iodine and uranium in deep-seated rocks so that we could date the formation time of the Earth after the supernova explosion that produced extinct I-129 and Pu-244.

    "Iodine and uranium in ultrabasic rocks and carbonatites, " Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 4 (1968) 357.

 

  • Balasubrahman (Chino) Srinivasan (Ph.D, 1971) published many papers on a wide range of topics for his PhD dissertation, ranging from fission yields of heavy nuclei to double beta decay to cosmo-chemistry and evidence that isotopes in various parts of the solar system have been sorted by mass.

    "On the isotopic composition of trapped helium and neon in carbonaceous chondrites," Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 12 (1971) 282.
    "A comparison of noble gases released from lunar fines (#15601164) with noble gases in meteorites and in the Earth," Proceedings of the Third Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, vol. 2 (1972) 1927.

 
  • Henry Hung Ngo (M.S., 1972) received his MS degree working under the supervision of Professor William Carroll but was intrigued by cosmochemistry. After completing his MS degree at UMR, he received a PhD degree working with Mike Lipschutz at Purdue and then spent most of his career working with Gerry Wasserburg at Cal Tech.
 
  • Nicholas H. Tibbs (M.S., 1969; Ph.D., 1972) was a graduate student in Geology working under the supervision of a well-known geochemist, Professor Ernst Bolter. Nick was interested in stable isotope studies. He provided the barite sample from the Pea Ridge Mine, Sullivan , MO that displayed the largest ratio of excess Xe-131 (from neutron-capture on Ba-130) to excess Xe-136 from fission.

    "Anomalous Xe-131 in barites," Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 123 (1994) 71-79.
 

  • Mervet S. Boulos (Ph.D., 1972) is probably best known for discovering the decay products of extinct iodine-129 and plutonium-244 trapped inside the Earth. This finding left little time after the end of element synthesis for the Earth to form and differentiate into layers: core, mantle, crust, oceans and atmosphere.

    "The xenon record of extinct radioactivities in the Earth," Science 174 (1971) 1334.
    http://web.umr.edu/~om/archive/XenonRecord.pdf

 
  • David E. Sinclair (M.S., 1972) determined the production rate of Ar-36 from naturally occurring neutron-capture on chlorine-35 in the mineral sodalite.

    "Argon-36 from neutron capture on chlorine in nature", Z. Naturforsch. 29A (1974) 488.
 
  • Richard D. Beaty (Ph.D., 1973) developed a new analytical technique to determine trace levels of tellurium in rocks and minerals.
    Tellurium in rocks", Chem. Geol. 12 (1973) 155.
 
  • S. H. Tan (M.S., 1975) worked with a team of students using neutron activation analysis (NAA) in combination with stable isotope mass spectrometry to determine fission-produced iodine-129 in environmental samples.
    "Iodine-129 in man, cow and deer", Health Physics 34 (1978) 691.
 
  • Edward W. Hennecke (Ph.D., 1975) published many papers on a wide range of topics. He is best known in the nuclear physics community for measuring the double beta-decay half-life of tellurium-128.

    "Double beta-decay of tellurium-128", Phys. Rev. 11 (1975) 1378.
 
  • Robert V. Ballad (Ph.D., 1978) published a wide range of papers. He is best known for using neutron activation analysis to measure isotopic anomalies in tellurium extracted from the Allende meteorite.

    "Strange" tellurium accompanies the "strange" xenon made by rapid nuclear reactions in the supernova that gave birth to the solar system 5 billion years ago.
    "Isotopes of tellurium, xenon and krypton in the Allende meteorite retain record of nucleosynthesis", Nature 277 (1979) 615.
 
  • J. F Richardson (M.S., 1980) worked on several different research projects, including the detection of correlated isotopic anomalies in the heavy elements trapped in meteorites from the nuclear reactions that made our elements.

    "Correlated Anomalies of Tellurium and Xenon in Allende", Meteoritics 14 (1979) 503.
 
  • K. M. Garst (M.S., 1980) found exceedingly high levels of actinide elements in carbonado diamonds.
 
  • B. Sinha (Ph.D., 1980), a graduate student in geology, assisted with mineral separations for double beta-decay measurements.

    "Double beta decay of tellurium-130" Nucl. Phys. A453 (1986) 26.
 

  • L. L. Oliver (Ph.D., 1981) worked on several projects, including trace levels of iodine-129 from nuclear weapons fallout in the environment and the presence of "strange" tellurium accompanying the"strange" xenon in meteorites from rapid nuclear reactions in the supernova at the birth of the solar system.

    "Isotopically anomalous tellurium in Allende: Another relic of local element synthesis ", J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem. 43 (1981) 2207.

 

  • R. Greg Downing (Ph.D., 1981) worked on several different research projects during his PhD studies, including the use of neutron activation analysis to show the presence of "strange" tellurium in meteorites from the supernova explosion that gave birth to the solar system.  His analysis of noble gases in the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite set stringent upper limits on the presence of "strange" xenon in the central, iron-rich proto-planetary material that formed iron meteorites and the cores of the inner planets.  He also uncovered evidence that portions of the Canyon Diablo meteorite had been pre-irradiated prior to compaction.

    "Composition of the noble gases in Canyon Diablo," Geochem J. 16 (1982) 157.

 

  • Golden Hwaung (M.S., 1982) uncovered some of the earliest evidence that the Sun is a giant Plasma Diffuser, sorting atoms by weight and moving the lighter elements to the solar surface. Golden and Manuel reported that 22 different types of atoms in the solar wind, ranging in mass from 3 to 136 amu (atomic mass unit), had been sorted by weight. When abundances of elements in the photosphere are corrected for this mass separation, the most abundant elements inside the Sun were found to be Fe, O, Ni, Si, S, Mg and Ca - the same elements that make up most of the material in ordinary meteorites and in rocky planets close to the Sun.
    "Solar abundance of the elements", Meteoritics 18 (1983) 209.

    http://web.umr.edu/~om/archive/SolarAbundances.pdf

 
  • K.-Y. (George) Chiou (Ph.D., 1985) studied the distribution of chalcogen elements in the environment from the combustion of fossil fuels, using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry for the measurements.

    "Determination of tellurium and selenium in atmospheric aerosols by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry", Anal. Chem. 56 (1984) 2721.
 
  • Wuu-Jyh Lin (Ph.D., 1987) used the geochemical method of determining the half-lives of long-lived nuclides by measuring the amounts of the decay product that had accumulated over billions of years in old minerals of the parent nuclide.

    "Geochemically measured half-lives of Se-82 and Te-130", Nucl. Phys . A 481 (1988) 477.
 
  • Sirinart Muangnoicharoen (Ph.D., 1989) developed the techniques to employ atomic absorption spectrometry to determine selenium and tellurium in air.

    "Determination of selenium and tellurium in air by atomic-absorption spectrometry", Talanta 35 (1988) 679.
 
  • Greg Fox (M.S., 1989) developed a method of determining selenium and tellurium in lead deposits by graphite furnace and hydride generation atomic absorption spectroscopy.

    "Determination of Selenium and Tellurium in Lead Alloys by Graphite Furnace and Hydride Generation Atomic Absorption Spectrometry", Atomic Spectroscopy, vol. 11 ,No. 1 (January/February 1990).

 
  • S.-I. Kim (M.S., 1990) developed a method to determine selenium and tellurium in cigarette tobacco, tobacco ash, and tobacco smoke.
 
  • Bin Li (Ph.D., 1993) used stable isotope mass spectrometry to study the noble gas record of terrestrial ores and minerals.

    "A noble gas technique for the identification of mantle and crustal materials and its application to the Kuroko deposits", Geochem. J. 28 (1994) 47.
    "Anomalous Xe-131 in barites", Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 123 (1994) 71.
 

  • Jauh-Tzuoh (J.-T.) Lee (Ph.D 1995) used stable isotope mass spectrometry to study the origin of the elements and the early history of the solar system.  He showed that troilite (FeS) inclusions in "primitive" carbonaceous meteorites contain "normal" xenon, like that observed in the Earth, Mars, and the Sun, while diamond (C) inclusions of these same meteorites contain "strange" xenon and primordial helium, like that seen in Jupiter's helium-rich atmosphere.

    "Terrestial type xenon in sulfides of the Allende meteorite", Geochem. J. 30 (1996) 17.
    "Xenon isotope record of nucleosynthesis and the early solar system", Chinese Science Bulletin 41, issue 19 (1996) 1778 [In Chinese]
 
  • Roger A. Winters (Ph.D, 1997) did his graduate research in biochemistry. His research advisory left UMR and Manuel agreed to chair the committee for his final Ph.D thesis defense.
 
  • Prashanth Jangam (M.S., 2000) maintained the web page and worked on the "Cradle of the Nuclides" and the information it contains about the Sun's origin and composition.

    "The Sun's origin, composition, and source of energy", 32 nd Lunar Planet. Sci. Conf. (2001) Abst. 1041, Houston , TX , USA .
    http://web.umr.edu/~om/lpsc.prn.pdf
 
 
  • Aditya Katragada (M.S., 2001) maintained the web page and used isotope distributions and systematic properties of nuclei to decipher the origin of the Sun and the early history of the solar system.

    "The Sun's origin and composition: Implications from meteorite studies", Proc. ACM 2002 ( ESA SP-500 , editor: Barbara Warmbein, 2002) pp. 787-790.
    http://www.umr.edu/~om/abstracts/ACM-2002.pdf
 
  • Bing Zhang (Ph.D., 2002) did most of his graduate research in polymer chemistry. In the spring of 2000, Bing was a member of the Advanced Nuclear Chemistry class, Chem. 471, that used reduced variables with data from the 2000 Nuclear Wallet Cards to reveal nuclear trends summarized in the "Cradle of the Nuclides".
 
 
  • Shelonda Finch (Ph.D. candidate) was a student in the Advanced Nuclear Chemistry class, Chem 471, in the Spring of 2000 who worked on the "Cradle of the Nuclides". Professor Harvest Collier supervises Shelonda graduate research.
 
  • Cynthia Bolon (Ph.D. candidate) was a student in the Advanced Nuclear Chemistry class, Chem 471, in the Spring of 2000 who worked on the "Cradle of the Nuclides" . Bolon has since worked on many practical implications of the nuclear properties summarized there, including a link between nuclear stability and solar abundances of the elements.

    "Nuclear systematics: I. Solar abundance of the elements", J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 251, (2002) 381.
 
  • Sumeet Kamat (MS candidate) is updating the web page and beginning a study of neutron-emission from neutron stars by penetration of the gravitational barrier.