NUCL-ACS

Donald Orth passed away on Sunday April 9, 2017 at the age of 93. A student of Seaborg, and an early scientist at SRS, Westinghouse later created an award named for him. Don was an ACS and NUCL division member, and an at-large member of the ACS Executive Committee from 1967-69 and 1976-78. The full obituary can be read online.

Raymond K. Sheline, 93, died on Feb. 10 in Fort Myers, Fla. C&EN has published an obituary, as has the Tallahassee Democrat.

Greg Choppin, 87, passed away October 21, 2015, surrounded by his family.  Born November 7, 1927 in Eagle Lake, Texas.  Greg’s undergraduate studies at Loyola University Chicago were interrupted by service in the Army during the post-WW2 occupation of Japan.  Greg returned to study chemistry at the University of Texas, earning a Ph.D.  before completing a post-doc and working as a research scientist at the University of California Berkeley with Dr. Glenn Seaborg.  After his work at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Greg became a faculty member at Florida State University, where he fostered the careers of students through his teaching and research.  Greg had received many awards recognizing his exemplary teaching and research contributions, and FSU had previously created a named chair in chemistry in his honor.  For more, please see the obituary published in the Tallahassee Democrat.

David Karraker, 91, passed away Friday, February 27, 2015. Born August 17, 1923, in Anna, Illinois, to the late Wallace and Margaret Browne Karraker.  His undergraduate studies at Southern Illinois University were interrupted by service in the US Army during World War II, but he returned to complete his bachelor’s degree in chemistry.  David continued his studies at the University of California at Berkeley completing his PhD in chemistry.  This was also where he met and married his late wife of 62 years, Mildred.  David began work at Argonne National Laboratory, continued at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and settled into work at Savannah River National Laboratory in 1953, where he continued working for 53 years.  He was internationally regarded for excellence in actinide chemistry and was awarded the Glenn T. Seaborg Award in 1999.  He had an active life enjoying tennis, duplicate bridge, jazz, reading, raising camellias, and many travels overseas.

Professor Heino Nitsche died unexpectedly and peacefully in his sleep on July 15. He would have been 65 next Thursday.

Heino was born July 24, 1949, in Munich, Germany. He earned his Ph.D. in 1980 at the Free University of Berlin and came to Berkeley as an LBNL staff scientist that year. He stayed for 13 years and in 1993 returned to the newly reunified Germany to direct a radiochemistry research institute in Dresden. In 1998 he was lured back to Berkeley by an offer to become a full professor in the Department of Chemistry and the founding director of LBNL’s Glenn T. Seaborg Center.
Heino was the leader of the Nuclear Science and Security Constoriums’s Nuclear Chemistry and Radiochemistry focus group, overseeing the cutting edge research in nuclear and radiochemistry of heavy elements, radioisotope science and development, rare isotope harvesting, basic studies of chemical fractionation in fallout formation and nuclear forensics, as well as studies of chemistry of irradiated materials, with a goal to develop and transfer technology useful for nuclear forensics and international safeguards. Heino was a member of the team that confirmed the existence of element 117. The team included several of his former students.
His work was internationally recognized – in May 2014, Heino received the Hevesy Medal Award from the International Committee on Activation Analysis.The Hevesy Medal is given in recognition of excellence through outstanding, sustained career achievements in the fields of pure and applied nuclear and radiochemistry, particularly applications to nuclear analytical chemistry.

The NUCL division has lost a good friend and patron. Lester R. Morss, Ph.D., passed away on Saturday, June 14, 2014. Lester was Chair of the division in 1999, and served as Secretary from 1990-1992. Lester was also a strong advocate for the Nuclear and Radiochemistry Summer Schools program, which have been sponsored by the NUCL division since 1984.