Let's talk about James A. Harris, the co-discoverer of Rutherfordium and Dubnium, elements 104 & 105.
He was the 1st African-American to be involved in the creation of a new element.
Born Waco, TX in March 1932 BS in Chemistry at HBU Hutson-Tillotson College in Austin, TX.
His 1st job out of college was at Tracerlab, Inc. as an analytical radiochemist, then on to Lawrence Radiation Labs at UC Berkeley where he was Head of Engineering and Technical Services at Lawrence, working on heavy isotopes project.
His ability to prepare heavy isotope targets free of contaminants (lead, etc) made the discovery of elements 104 and 105 possible.
Credit for the discovery of the two elements was controversial, but ultimately shared with a Soviet group doing nearly identical work.
The agreement brokered in 1997 was that element 104 would be named rutherfordium, in honor of Ernest Rutherford, and the Soviet group named element 105 dubnium after the city of Dubna, where the Soviet Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) was located.
