Biography:Frances Pleasonton
Frances Pleasonton | |
|---|---|
 ORNL’s Arthur Snell and Frances Pleasonton with a device to count neutron decays | |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College |
| Known for | Neutron decay |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
Frances Pleasonton (1912–1990) was a Particle Physicist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She was an active teacher and researcher, and a member of the team who first demonstrated neutron decay in 1951.
Early life and education
Pleasonton earned her bachelor's degree at Bryn Mawr College.[1] She was an editor of the Bryn Mawr College yearbook.[2] She went on to teach at Winsor School, Girls Latin School of Chicago and Brearley School.[1] She returned to Bryn Mawr College for her master's degree, working as a warden at Pembroke East, and graduated in 1943.[1][3] She was demonstrator-elect in physics and took a leave of absence for government service in 1942.[3] During her master's degree she identified the crystal structure of Rochelle salt.[4]
Research
Pleasonton was an active researcher in neutron decay.[5] There were several attempts to measure neutron half-life before the second world war, all of which failed due to the lack of availability of intense neutron sources.[5] Arthur Snell and Leonard Miller built the Oak Ridge Graphite Reactor, which could focus beams of neutrons and allow scientists to observe their decay.[5] They measured the half-life of a neutron in 1951.[6] Pleasonton was supported by the United States Atomic Energy Commission and published broadly.[7][8][9] In 1958 they examined the decay of helium-6, Pleasonton and Snell monitoring the directions of neutrinos and electrons.[10] This result confirmed the electron-neutrino theory of beta decay.[6] In 1973 she authored several sections of the report for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.[11] At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pleasonton's laboratory was visited by the Queen of Greece and the King of Jordan.[10] Pleasonton went on to study the ionisation of xenon x-rays.[12]
Pleasonton remained in Tennessee after her retirement from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was involved in citizens groups to protect the environment.[13]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 (in en) Bryn Mawr College Calendar. Bryn Mawr College. 1944. https://books.google.com/books?id=No7saMU0OiEC&q=%22frances+pleasonton%22.
- ↑ "Bryn Mawr College Yearbook. Class of 1934". https://repository.brynmawr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.gr/&httpsredir=1&article=1028&context=bmc_yearbooks.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bryn Mawr College (1944). Bryn Mawr College Calendar, 1943-1944. Special Collections Bryn Mawr College Library. Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr College. https://archive.org/details/brynmawrcalendar3637bryn.
- ↑ Pleasonton, Frances (1944). "A Model of the Structure of Rochelle Salt". American Journal of Physics 12 (1): 19–22. doi:10.1119/1.1990525. Bibcode: 1944AmJPh..12...19P.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "The short life of a neutron | ORNL" (in en). https://www.ornl.gov/blog/ornl-review/short-life-neutron.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "History of Fundamental and Applied Sciences Achievements in Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics – Discovery of America by Queltanews - Technopark QUELTA". http://tp.quelta.com.ua/shop5/index.php?productID=769.
- ↑ Pleasonton, Frances; Snell, A. H. (1957-08-07). "Ionization following internal conversion in xenon" (in en). Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 241 (1225): 141–152. doi:10.1098/rspa.1957.0119. ISSN 0080-4630. Bibcode: 1957RSPSA.241..141P.
- ↑ "Fragment-mass and kinetic-energy distributions from the spontaneous fission of $sup 246$Cm | Sci-napse | Academic search engine for paper" (in en). Scinapse. https://scinapse.io/papers/2016511509.
- ↑ Pleasonton, Frances (1973-10-15). "Prompt γ-rays emitted in the thermal-neutron induced fission of 233U and 239Pu" (in en). Nuclear Physics A 213 (2): 413–425. doi:10.1016/0375-9474(73)90161-9. ISSN 0375-9474. Bibcode: 1973NuPhA.213..413P.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Bienlein, J.K.; Pleasonton, Frances (1962-08-01). "The half-life of He6" (in en). Nuclear Physics 37: 529–534. doi:10.1016/0029-5582(62)90288-2. ISSN 0029-5582. Bibcode: 1962NucPh..37..529B.
- ↑ Perey, F. G. (1973). Report to the US Nuclear Data Committee. doi:10.2172/4469547. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/4469547. Retrieved 2018-07-15.
- ↑ (in en) Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Mathematical and physical sciences. Harrison and Son. 1957. https://books.google.com/books?id=IggEAAAAIAAJ&q=%22frances+pleasonton%22.
- ↑ "TENNESSEE CITIZENS FOR WILDERNESS PLANNING". 1981-11-09. https://trace.utk.edu/islandora/object/utk.ir.tcwp%3A563/datastream/PDF/download/citation.pdf.[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]
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