Page 12
Summer Session Kansan
Tuesday, June 11, 1957
$23,000 Is Allotted For Radiation Study
A new $23,000 contract between the University and the Atomic Energy Commission will enable KU scientists to carry out research in the field of geochemistry and to construct a "hot lab" for work with radioactive materials.
Dr. Edward J. Zeller, assistant professor of geology, will direct the study. He and an associate, Dr. Richard H. Benson, also an assistant professor of geology, will work toward the improvement of a method for the measurement of the geologic age of limestone.
They will work with the thermoluminescence method, developed by Dr. Zeller. Thermoluminescence is the light given off by a substance, in this case, calcium carbonate (limestone) crystals, at a temperature between room temperature and red heat.
Can Calculate Age
The amount of natural radiation is determined by measuring the light given off by the limestone. This information, with the knowledge of the natural radiation rate, enables the scientist to calculate the age of the sample.
The first step in the study will be the investigation of the precipitation of limestone. There are two schools of thought about the precipitation, Dr. Zeller said. Some believe that chemical precipitation is a significant process in the formation of limestone, while others believe it to be precipitated only by animals or plants.
The chemical precipitation, Dr. Zeller said, is very rare. One location where it is believed to exist is behind the Florida Keys. The two scientists will spend several weeks at this location, beginning in July.
There, each morning they will survey the coastal waters from Dr. Zeller's light plane, searching for the "white tide," an ever-changing area of water in which fine crystals of limestone are suspended.
After they have located their working area for the day by plane, Dr. Zeller and Dr. Benson will sail to that location to collect samples. Equipped with skin-diving gear, they will collect specimens of limestone and water. In addition, they will take extensive measurements of the temperature and salinity of the water while they are underwater. Probes fastened to cables from the ship will take the measurements which will be recorded by equipment aboard the ship.
To Sample Normal Water
The scientists will collect specimens in the normal ocean water on the Atlantic side of the Keys. While in Florida, they will work with the University of Miami Marine Laboratory, which is cooperating in the Florida phase of the study.
Dr. Zeller and Dr. Benson hope to discover how the limestone is formed, the characteristics of its crystals, and to do basic research in radiation damage. They are especially interested in the incorporation of radioactive impurities, such as uranium and thorium, into the crystals.
Upon returning to KU, the scientists and four graduate assistants will study the chemical composition of limestone, thermoluminescence characteristics, including the reaction under high press
Kiewit Sons Company Establishes Award
Establishment of the Peter Kiewit Sons Company Scholarship in the School of Engineering and Architecture has been announced by Dean T. DeWitt Carr.
The scholarship, which will be effective for the first time for the academic year of 1957-58, is for $500. It is given by the company which has its home office in Omaha, Nebraska, and a branch office in Wichita, Kansas. The award is to be given a senior in either civil or architectural engineering.
Sudlow Awarded Fellowship
Robert N. Sudlow, assistant professor of drawing and painting, has been awarded a fellowship from the Huntington Hartford Foundation, Pacific Palisades, Calif., for study there. Sudlow will spend ten weeks at the colony, beginning June 18.
sure and high temperature, and will measure radioactivity. The contract provides for three graduate assistants. Salary for the fourth assistant is provided by the KU Research Committee fund, which is supported by legislative appropriation.
The "hot lab" will be used extensively in this study by Dr. Zeller, who will train graduate assistants in the work. The laboratory will be a small concrete pillbox containing an eight-foot well. Inside the well will be a block of lead containing cobalt 60, the radioactive source material.
The limestone crystals will be subject to 30,000 roentgens of radiation per hour. Thus, in an hour's time, it will be possible to equal the damage done by natural radiation in 300 or 400 million years.
The AEC contract, which began June 1, is for one year, with renewal possible at the end of that time.
The Agnes Wright Strickland Memorial Life Membership in the KU Alumni Association has been awarded to Dean Wallace Graves, Kansas City, Kan.
Life Membership Award Presented
The Strickland Life Membership was established four years ago by Charles E. Strickland, Mason City, Ia.; H. W. Strickland, South Haven; and Miss Frances W. Strickland, in memory of their mother. The award is made each year to a graduating senior in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the University. Selection is made by an anonymous committee.
Graves was president of Student Union Activities, and has been board member and treasurer of that organization. A member of Sachem, senior men's honorary society, he also belongs to Scabbard and Blade, military honorary society.
Faculty Art Exhibit On Display In Museum
The annual exhibition of work of KU faculty members in various art departments is now open at the Museum of Art. The departments of architecture, design and drawing and painting are represented in the exhibit.
An extra feature will be a special showing of the watercolors of Professor Emeritus Jojheph M. Kellogg of the department of architecture The exhibit will be shown all summer.
A party of 14 persons, headed by Dr. Carlyle S. Smith, associate professor of anthropology, left the University of Kansas June 6 for an eight-week field trip to the Marshall county area of Kansas.
Smith Heads Field Group
Dr. Smith and his group will salvage specimens from ancient Indian village sites that will be flooded by Tuttle Creek Dam. The salvage work is a cooperative project sponsored by the University Museum of Natural History and the Department of Interior National Park Service. Dr. Smith has previously done work of this nature in South Dakota for the Park Service and the KU museum.
Accompanying Dr. Smith are Alfred E. Johnson, Ellsworth; David A. Horr, Lawrence, and Charles E. Eyman, Wichita, all of whom received A.B. degrees in anthropology at the June Commencement. Also with the group are Maria Wille, Costa Rica graduate student, Peter M. Gardner, Osawatomie junior; Barbara Richards, Hays junior, and Ehrhard Bahr, Germany graduate student.
The specimens collected by the party will be brought to the museum where they will be analyzed. Dr. Smith will write a report on their findings.
Richard Fisher, a member of the Science Field Club at Wyandotte High School, Kansas City, Kas; Vladimir Markotic, graduate student at Harvard University from Yugoslovia, and Joan Seibert, a student at the University of California at Los Angeles. Mrs. Smith and their two children will accompany Dr. Smith, also.
A truck loaded with supplies left Wednesday for the abandoned farmhouse near Bigelow, Marshall county, where they will be housed.
Boeing Scholarships Awarded 3 Seniors
The appointments of three graduating seniors from Kansas high schools as Boeing Airplane Company Scholars at the university next year were announced today by Spencer Martin, director of Aids and Awards.
Eugene Kendell Van Vleet of Oberlin and Rodney B. Kaufman of Augusta will hold Boeing scholarships as they begin pre-business administration studies. Richard E. Jones of Winfield will study engineering physics. The awards are renewable for the four-year course at KU.
Harris Scholarship Awarded
Charles Robert Macy, Hutchinson,
Kansas, will hold the $500 John P.
Harris Scholarship in Journalism
during the 1957-58 school year, it was
announced June 5 by Burton W. Marvin,
dean of the William Allen
White School of Journalism.
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