Robley D. Evans (physicist)

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Robley Dunglison Evans (May 18, 1907, University Place, Nebraska – December 31, 1995, Paradise Valley, Arizona) was an American nuclear physicist and pioneer of nuclear medicine. He was the president of the Health Physics Society in 1972–1973.[1]

Biography

His father Manley Jefferson Evans (1878–1970) and mother Alice Jennie Turner (1882–1965) married in August 1905 in

Los Angeles County. Manley J. Evans taught at Hollywood High School for 32 years. At Hollywood High School, Robley D. Evans was the president of the science club and the valedictorian of the Class of 1925. In the 8th grade, even before he entered high school, he was playing percussion instruments professionally in danceable jazz bands. In high school he played in the regular band and sometimes in orchestra, symphony, and the Hollywood Bowl.[2]

Evans studied physics at

National Research Council Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.[3][7]

He accepted a job offer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and he drove, with his wife Gwen, their first son Richard, and their adopted daughter Nadia, from California to Massachusetts in the summer of 1934. Robley Evans in 1934 taught MIT's (and the USA's) first course in nuclear physics.[7] At MIT, he was an assistant professor from 1934 to 1938, an associate professor from 1938 to 1945,[3] and a full professor from 1945 to 1972, when he retired as professor emeritus. In 1935 he established MIT's Radioactivity Center (a multidisciplinary endeavor) and directed it until his retirement in 1972.[1] After retiring from the MIT faculty, he was a consultant at MIT and at the Mayo Clinic. He was the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific articles.[5]

In the early 1930s he developed the meter-arc method (sometimes called the Evans method).[citation needed]

Evans was one of the world's first scientists to investigate radium's effects on human health.[1] He did research on the

luminescent paint to clock faces and were instructed to form pointed tips on the paint brushes by applying moisture from their lips. He also did research on health problems caused by ill-advised use, in the 1920s, of radium in medicine, tonics, body adornment, or amusing novelty.[7] The notorious case of Eben Byers, who died in March 1932, after taking over 1,000 doses of Radithor
, received considerable publicity and alerted the general public to the dangers of radioactive substances.

In 1938 Evans instigated and chaired the Conference on Applied Nuclear Physics, which was held in October 1940 and was jointedly sponsored by MIT and the American Institute of Physics.[7] In 1938 he was the director for the construction of MIT's Markle Cyclotron, which became operational in 1939, and produced radioisotopes that were sent to dozens of medical research centers and companies.[8] The cyclotron was operational for about 3 decades. The cyclotron's first product was iodine-130, which, with a half-life of 12 hours, was far more useful medicinally than iodine-128, which had a half-life of 25 minutes.[5] For many years, physicians and researchers have used iodine-131, which has an even longer half-life of about 8 days.[9]

In May 1941, Evans and the USA's other leading experts on the safe handling of radioactive materials held a one-day meeting at the National Bureau of Standards. He presented all of the data to the group of experts and suggested a maximum permissible body burden of 0.1 microcuries of radium. He individually asked each of the experts, including Gioacchino Failla, Leon Francis Curtiss (1985–1983), and Harrison Stanford Martland (1883–1954), for their opinions. All agreed with Evans's suggestion.[10] Evans and Clark Goodman also established maximum permissible air concentrations for radon.[11]

During WW II he worked with colleagues at MIT's Radioactivity Center and with physicians from the Medical Clinic of the

Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and from Harvard Medical School to develop a technique for preserving human whole blood to benefit wounded military men.[5]

In a January 1946 article published in The Atlantic Monthly, Evans summarized various medical applications of nuclear physics.[12]

On his initiative, the Center for Human Radiobiology was established by the Atomic Energy Commission at Argonne National Laboratory to study the long-term effects of radium exposure.[13]

Evans was also one of the most important pioneers of setting safety standards for the transportation of radioactive materials.[10] From 1946 to 1969 he chaired a National Research Council committee on the transport of radioactive materials that created basic standards.[5]

His doctoral students include Martin Deutsch.[4]

Evans was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1936[14] and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1945. He was also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Nuclear Society.[15] In 1990 he received the Enrico Fermi Award for "pioneering work in nuclear medicine, in measurements of body burdens of radioactivity and their effects on human health, and in the use of radioactive isotopes for medical purposes."[16] He received the Presidential Certificate of Merit, the Theobald Smith Medal and Award in Medicine of the AAAS, the Hull Award and Gold Medal of the American Medical Association, the Silvanus Thompson Medal of the British Institute of Radiology, the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Health Physics Society, and the William D. Coolidge Award of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in 1984.[11]

Upon his death he was survived by his second wife and his three children from his first marriage.[8]

The Columbia Chapter of the Health Physics Society (CCHPS) annually awards the Robley D. Evans Commemorative Medal.[17]

Selected publications

Articles

Books

  • The Atomic Nucleus. McGraw-Hill. 1955; xv+972 pp.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)[18][19] (For more than 2 decades this book was a basic text for graduate students in nuclear physics.)[5]
  • You and Your Students. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1959; 60 pages; prepared by a faculty committee chaired by Robley D. Evans; illustrations by
    ASIN B09SHHFJRZ
    .

References

  1. ^ a b c "Biographical note, Robley Dunglison Evans". MIT ArchivesSpace, MIT Libraries.
  2. ^ "Robley D. Evans - Session I (interview by Charles Weiner on May 2 & 3, 1972 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology)". American Institute of Physics. 23 January 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d Cattell, Jaques, ed. (1949). American Men of Science: A Biographical Dictionary. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Science Press. p. 736.
  4. ^ a b Robley Dunglison Evans at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Prof. Robley D. Evans of MIT Dies at 88". MIT News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. January 4, 1996.
  6. ^ "Dr. Robley Evans and his wife Gwen". Calisphere. 1928.
  7. ^ a b c d "Robley D. Evans - Session II (interview by Charles Weiner on May 7, 1974 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology)". American Institute of Physics. 23 January 2015.
  8. ^ a b Freeman, Karen (January 6, 1996). "Robley Evans, Radioactivity Pioneer, Dies at 88". The New York Times. p. 25, Section 1.
  9. PMID 10807387
    .
  10. ^ a b "Robley D. Evans - Session III (interview by Charles Weiner on June 14, 1978 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology)". American Institute of Physics. 23 January 2015.
  11. ^
    doi:10.1063/1.2916006
    .
  12. ^ Evans, Robley (January 1946). "The Medical Uses of Atomic Energy". theatlantic.com.
  13. ^ Rowland, R. E. (1995). "Foreword". Radium in Humans: A Review of U.S. Studies. Argonne National Laboratory.
  14. ^ "APS Fellow Archive". American Physical Society. (search on year=1936 and institution=Massachusetts Institution of Technology)
  15. ^ Hearings and Reports on Atomic Energy, U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. Vol. 115. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1968. p. 258.
  16. ^ "Robley D. Evans, 1990". Enrico Fermi Award, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy. 28 December 2010.
  17. ^ "Robley D. Evans Commemorative Medal". Columbia Chapter of the Health Physics Society Society (cchps.org).
  18. doi:10.1126/science.123.3197.592.b
    .
  19. S2CID 9991127
    .

External links

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