Lawrence E. Glendenin

Lawrence Elgin Glendenin ( born November 8, 1918 in Bay City, USA, † November 22, 2008 in Illinois, USA ) was an American chemist and co-discoverer of the element promethium.

Glendenin worked during the Second World War in the Clinton Laboratories, now Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the investigation of elements from nuclear fission. He and his two colleagues Jacob A. and Charles D. Coryell Marinsky could isolate the hitherto unknown rare earth element promethium and also manufacture over the shelling of neodymium with neutrons. The separation of the other emerging elements was carried out by ion exchange chromatography.

Glendenin belonged in 1945 to the 154 signatories of the Szilárd petition. In this petition, Harry S. Truman was asked to use the atomic bomb only as a demonstration in an uninhabited area to give Japan the possibility of surrender.

A year after he received his doctorate in 1949, he transferred to the Argonne National Laboratory where he remained until 1985.

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The Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry was awarded to him in 1974.