27 September 1999 Don Becker ('59)

Editor's Note: At Homecoming 1999, the VU Alumni Association awarded Don Becker the 1999 Distinguished Alumnus Award.

I have worked as a Nuclear Analytical Chemistry - I use neutron activation analysis using a 20 MW research nuclear reactor for trace element determinations in a wide variety of materials; most work is for the certification of elemental concentrations in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Materials. Matrices analyzed include: biological materials (apple leaves, beef liver, fish tissue), metals and alloys, semiconductor materials, sediments (river and ocean), rocks, ores, ceramics, etc. I will be retiring on December 3, 1999, after 38.5 years at NIST.

After leavinig VU, I received an M.S. in Physical Chemistry at Florida State University (1961). My thesis was on the radiation chemistry and kinetics of organic free radicals; irradiation source was a 3 MeV Van de Graf accelerator. I started at NBS (now NIST) in June of 1961, doing research on UV degradation of polymers, in the Polymers Division. NBS recruited at FSU, and I interviewed there and accepted a position with NBS locatged in Washington DC.

I transferred 8 months later, because of a reorganization, to a group in the Physical Chemistry Division doing vacuum UV photochemistry research. Irradiation sources were high intensity UV lamps. After 2 years and several papers later, it became obvious that I would be very limited there, so I interviewed and transferred (in Feb. 1964) to a recently reorganized Analytical Chemistry Division, which was in the process of "ramping up" to utilize a new reseach reactor which was just starting to be built at the new NBS campus just outside of Washington DC.

The Analytical Chemistry Division wanted to use the reactor for analytical chemistry purposes, particularly analysis of NBS SRMs. I remained at NBS for the rest of my career, although I moved around several more times within NBS/NIST, within the Analytical Chemistry Divison and also outside the Division, but always returned back to the Division.

The longest break outside the Divison was 6 years (1976-1982) as Program Manager for the Recycled Oil Program, which was a very political "hot potato" which I finally accepted after turning down the job four times. I actually enjoyed the position and challenges, and when the program was successfully completed and terminated in 1982, I received the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal for my efforts. I then returned to the Analytical Chemistry Division in 1983 and have been a research chemist with them ever since,still doing high accuracy neutron activation analysis.

One physics course there that was particularly helpful to me in my career. This was a nuclear physics course, taught by Prof. Armin Manning. We used to Valpo subcritical reactor to irradiate samples. One experiment that I still vividly remember was irradiating a dime, and then counting it over a period of time with a GM detector to measure and resolve the various silver halflives. I still do virtually the same thing at times, with much more sophisticated equipment of course, to accurately measure and characterize our reactor irradiation facilities. I believe that having taken this course got me interested in nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, and also helped me to demonstrate my capabilites in these areas when I interviewed for my NAA position. I became the first person in the world to use neutron activation analysis (NAA) to certify the chemical composition of a certified reference material in late 1964, using the Naval Research Laboratory Reactor prior to the NBS reactor completion. Without the nuclear physics background I would not have been able to step in and do that kind of work, at least not without more training.