Betty W Harris | |
---|---|
Born | |
Alma mater | Southern University Atlanta University University of New Mexico |
Known for | Chemistry of explosives |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Chemistry |
Institutions | Los Alamos National Laboratory |
Betty Wright Harris (born July 29, 1940) is an American chemist. She is known for her work on the chemistry of explosives completed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She patented a spot test for detecting 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) in the field, which is used by the Federal Department of Homeland Security to screen for nitroaromatic explosives. [1] [2]
Harris was born on 29 July 1940 [3] in Ouachita Parish, Monroe, Louisiana. She and her 11 siblings were raised on a farm by Henry Hudson "Jake" and Legertha Evelyn Thompson Wright. [4] She attended Union Central High School, enrolling at Southern University at the age of 16. She received her B.S. in chemistry with a minor in mathematics at the age of 19 and subsequently attended Atlanta University, receiving her M.S. degree. [5] [6] She taught as an assistant professor of chemistry and mathematics [7] at Mississippi Valley State University, Southern University and Colorado College. [2]
Harris was awarded a PhD in chemistry from the University of New Mexico in 1975, with a dissertation titled "Reactions of 2-aminopyridine with picryl halides". [8]
After gaining her PhD, she taught chemistry and mathematics at Mississippi Valley State University and Southern University. [5] Harris subsequently moved to do research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she worked in the areas of hazardous waste treatment and environmental remediation as well as explosives chemistry. Areas of focus included explosives detection, safing liquids, synthesis and characterization of insensitive high explosives and sensitivity of weathered high explosives. [9] In addition to her research, she has worked in outreach to young people, including working with the Girl Scouts in developing a badge based on chemistry.
During a leave of absence from LANL, Harris was the chief of chemical technology for Solar Turbine Inc., where she managed the technical laboratories and investigated cold-end corrosion of super alloys, which was caused by sulfuric acid and soot in gas turbine engines. For the last eleven years of Harris's career, she worked at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Classification as a certified document reviewer. [4]
She has received the New Mexico Governor's Trailblazer Award, [10] and is recognized as a distinguished African American Scientist by the National Academy of Sciences. [4] She is a member of Women in Science and Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and served as President of the New Mexico Business and Professional Women's Organization. [5] She is a 50-year member of the American Chemical Society.
Harris lives in Los Alamos, NM and has three children. [2]
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, inventor, engineer and businessman. He is known for inventing dynamite as well as having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize. He also made several important contributions to science, holding 355 patents in his lifetime. Nobel's most famous invention was dynamite, an explosive using nitroglycerin; it was patented in 1867.
RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (CH2N2O2)3. It is white, odorless and tasteless, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a nitroamine alongside HMX, which is a more energetic explosive than TNT. It was used widely in World War II and remains common in military applications.
Trinitrotoluene, more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagent in chemical synthesis, but it is best known as an explosive material with convenient handling properties. The explosive yield of TNT is considered to be the standard comparative convention of bombs and asteroid impacts. In chemistry, TNT is used to generate charge transfer salts.
C-4 or Composition C-4 is a common variety of the plastic explosive family known as Composition C, which uses RDX as its explosive agent. C-4 is composed of explosives, plastic binder, plasticizer to make it malleable, and usually a marker or odorizing taggant chemical. C-4 has a texture similar to modelling clay and can be molded into any desired shape. C-4 is relatively insensitive and can be detonated only by the shock wave from a detonator or blasting cap.
The year 1921 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.
Percy Lavon Julian was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.
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Francois Auguste Victor Grignard was a French chemist who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the eponymously named Grignard reagent and Grignard reaction, both of which are important in the formation of carbon–carbon bonds.
Phloroglucinol is an organic compound with the formula C6H3(OH)3. It is a colorless solid. It is used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and explosives. Phloroglucinol is one of three isomeric benzenetriols. The other two isomers are hydroxyquinol (1,2,4-benzenetriol) and pyrogallol (1,2,3-benzenetriol). Phloroglucinol, and its benzenetriol isomers, are still defined as "phenols" according to the IUPAC official nomenclature rules of chemical compounds. Many such monophenolics are often termed polyphenols.
Patsy O’Connell Sherman was an American chemist and co-inventor of Scotchgard, a 3M brand of products, a stain repellent and durable water repellent.
Darleane Christian Hoffman is an American nuclear chemist who was among the researchers who confirmed the existence of seaborgium, element 106. She is a faculty senior scientist in the Nuclear Science Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor in the graduate school at UC Berkeley. In acknowledgment of her many achievements, Discover magazine recognized her in 2002 as one of the 50 most important women in science.
Elena Ceaușescu was a Romanian communist politician who was the wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania. She was also the Deputy Prime Minister of Romania. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, she was executed alongside her husband on 25 December.
Cynthia "Cyndie" Anne Maryanoff is an American organic and materials chemist. Among other awards, she received the 2015 Perkin Medal for outstanding work in applied chemistry in the U.S.A.
Larned (Larry) Brown Asprey was an American chemist noted for his work on actinide, lanthanide, rare-earth, and fluorine chemistry, and for his contributions to nuclear chemistry on the Manhattan Project and later at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Bettye Washington Greene was an American industrial research chemist. She was one of the first few African American women to earn her PhD in chemistry and she was the first African American female Ph.D. chemist to work in a professional position at the Dow Chemical Company. At Dow, she researched latex and polymers. Greene is considered an early African American pioneer in science.
Lilli Hornig was a Czech-American scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project, as well as a feminist activist.
The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and operated by the University of California during World War II. Its mission was to design and build the first atomic bombs. Robert Oppenheimer was its first director, serving from 1943 to December 1945, when he was succeeded by Norris Bradbury. In order to enable scientists to freely discuss their work while preserving security, the laboratory was located on the Pajarito Plateau in Northern New Mexico. The wartime laboratory occupied buildings that had once been part of the Los Alamos Ranch School.
Jaqueline Kiplinger is an American inorganic chemist who specializes in organometallic actinide chemistry. Over the course of her career, she has done extensive work with fluorocarbons and actinides. She is currently a Fellow of the Materials Synthesis and Integrated Devices group in the Materials Physics and Applications Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Her current research interests are focused on the development of chemistry for the United States’ national defense and energy needs.
Kathryn Lee Emanuel Lawson was one of the first few female African American chemists who worked in Sandia National Laboratories. She studied properties of irradiated materials in Crystal Physics research division. She earned her PhD from the University of New Mexico in radiochemistry in 1957.
Kathryn Grove Shipp was an American organic chemist, a specialist in explosives, affiliated with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory from 1957 to 1970. In 1967, she was one of the six recipients of the Federal Woman's Award.