Marguerite PereyDied 13 May 1975 at age 65 (born 19 Oct 1909).Marguerite Catherine Perey was a French chemist who identified francium, element 87, the last naturally occurring element to be discovered (7 Jan 1939). She joined the Institut du Radium in 1929 as a technician to be the personal assistant of Marie Curie. Perey focussed on actinium for many years because it was considered a possible source of francium by alpha decay. However, the necessary purification of actinium and concentration required dozens of difficult and painstaking procedures. After submitting a thesis concerning her work on element 87, in 1946 she received a doctorate degree in physics. From 1949, she held the chair of a new nuclear chemistry department at the University of Strasbourg. In 1962, she became the first woman member of the French Academy of Sciences. She retired as her health declined from cancer caused by radiation.« |
