33 Facts About Frank Spedding

Frank Harold Spedding was a Canadian American chemist.

Frank Spedding was a renowned expert on rare earth elements, and on extraction of metals from minerals.

Frank Spedding co-founded, along with Dr Harley Wilhelm, the Institute for Atomic Research and the Ames Laboratory of the Atomic Energy Commission, and directed the Ames Laboratory from its founding in 1947 until 1968.

Frank Spedding developed an ion-exchange method of separating and purifying rare earth elements using ion-exchange resins, and later used ion exchange to separate isotopes of individual elements, including hundreds of grams of almost pure nitrogen-15.

Frank Spedding published over 250 peer-reviewed papers, and held 22 patents in his own name and jointly with others.

Frank Spedding became a naturalized US citizen through his father.

At Gomberg's suggestion, Spedding applied to the University of California, Berkeley, to study for his doctorate under Gilbert N Lewis.

Gomberg wrote a recommendation so that Frank Spedding was not only accepted, but given a teaching fellowship as well.

Frank Spedding's graduation coincided with the onset of the Great Depression, and jobs became hard to find.

Frank Spedding received a National Research Fellowship from 1930 to 1932, enabling him to stay at Berkeley and continue his research into the spectra of solids.

From 1932 to 1934, Frank Spedding worked for Lewis as a chemistry instructor.

Frank Spedding borrowed money to travel to Chicago to collect it.

Frank Spedding's benefactor was Herbert Newby McCoy, a retired chemistry professor from the University of Chicago, who had obtained a supply of these elements from the Lindsay Light and Chemical Company, where they were a byproduct of thorium production.

In 1934, Frank Spedding was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, allowing him to study in Europe.

Frank Spedding's intention was to study in Germany under James Franck and Francis Simon, but they fled Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power in March 1933.

Frank Spedding worked with John Lennard-Jones, and attended lectures given by Max Born.

Frank Spedding paid a visit to Niels Bohr in Copenhagen, and gave a lecture in Leningrad.

When Frank Spedding returned to the United States in 1935, the country was still in the grip of the Great Depression, and the job market had not improved.

Frank Spedding was George Fisher Baker assistant professor at Cornell University from 1935 to 1937.

Frank Spedding took up the position as assistant professor and head of the department of physical chemistry at Iowa State College in 1937.

Compton asked Frank Spedding to become the head of the Metallurgical Laboratory's Chemistry Division.

Compton and Frank Spedding turned to Mallinckrodt in Saint Louis, Missouri, which had experience with ether.

Frank Spedding directed the Ames Laboratory from its founding in 1947 until 1968.

Frank Spedding was "universally acknowledged as one of the world's foremost experts on the identification and separation of rare earths".

Frank Spedding developed an ion-exchange method of separating and purifying rare earth elements using ion-exchange resins.

Frank Spedding later used ion exchange to separate isotopes of individual elements, including hundreds of grams of almost pure nitrogen-15.

Frank Spedding received the William H Nichols Award from the American Chemical Society in 1952, the James Douglas Gold Medal from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers in 1961 and the Francis J Clamer Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1969.

Frank Spedding was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in chemistry, but never won.

An award called the Frank H Spedding Award is presented at the annual Rare Earth Research Conference.

Frank Spedding suffered a stroke in November 1984, and was hospitalised, but sent home.

Frank Spedding died suddenly on 15 December 1984, and was buried in the cemetery at Iowa State University.

Frank Spedding was survived by his wife, daughter, and three grandchildren.

Frank Spedding's papers are housed in the Special Collections Department of Iowa State University.