- Person
- George de Hevesy
- Lived
- 1885–1966
- Field
- Radiochemistry
- From
- Hungarian
The story
George de Hevesy, born in Budapest in 1885 into a family of Hungarian-Jewish descent, had spent three decades developing the radioactive tracer: a small amount of a radioactive isotope mixed with an ordinary element so that its path through a chemical reaction, a plant or an animal could be followed. From 1934, at Niels Bohr's institute in Copenhagen, he used labelled atoms in numerous studies of plant and animal physiology.
By 1943, with Denmark under German occupation, Copenhagen was no longer safe for a scientist of Jewish descent, and de Hevesy fled to neutral Sweden. He settled in Stockholm as an associate of the Institute of Research in Organic Chemistry and worked at Stockholm University until 1961. He was received there by the chemist Hans von Euler-Chelpin, a Nobel laureate himself, and the two wrote many papers together during and after the war. That same year, 1943, de Hevesy was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on isotopes as tracers.
In Sweden he continued his labelled-atom research with support from the Swedish State Research Council and the Wallenberg Foundation. Among other things he studied the effect of X-rays on the formation of nucleic acid in tumours and in normal organs, and the transport of iron in healthy and cancerous organisms.
This research used his tracer method to ask practical questions about cancer and radiation, the kind of questions that underlie modern radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. He also wrote several important books on radiochemistry and published some 397 scientific works over his career.
De Hevesy continued as an active scientific associate of Stockholm University into his retirement. He became an honorary fellow of the British Institute of Radiology and of the American Society of Nuclear Medicine, and in 1958 received the Atoms for Peace Award. Medical scientists later called him the father of nuclear medicine.
Why it matters
De Hevesy's tracer studies of tumours helped open the way for the use of isotopes in understanding and treating cancer.
About George de Hevesy
Hungarian chemist of Jewish origin who invented radioactive tracers, co-discovered hafnium, hid two Nobel medals from the Nazis in acid, and won the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
More about George de Hevesy
- George de Hevesy traced lead through a bean plantIn 1923 George de Hevesy published the first use of a radioactive tracer in a living organism, following lead-212 through the roots, stems and leaves of broad beans.
- George de Hevesy co-discovered the element hafniumGuided by Niels Bohr's atomic theory, George de Hevesy and Dirk Coster found the missing element 72 in Copenhagen and named it hafnium, after the city's Latin name.
- George de Hevesy hid colleagues' Nobel medals in acidWhen the Nazis invaded Denmark, chemist George de Hevesy dissolved two colleagues' gold Nobel medals in acid to protect them; after the war the gold was recovered and the medals recast.
- George de Hevesy ran the first radioactive tracer experimentIn early 1913, with Friedrich Paneth at the Vienna Institute for Radium Research, George de Hevesy carried out the first radioactive-tracer experiment.
- George de Hevesy invented neutron activation analysisIn 1936 George de Hevesy invented neutron activation analysis, identifying tiny traces of elements by bombarding a sample with neutrons and measuring the radioactivity produced.
- George de Hevesy developed X-ray fluorescence analysisWith Rockefeller Foundation support, George de Hevesy developed X-ray fluorescence analysis, a way to identify the elements in a sample from the X-rays they emit.
Sources
- George de Hevesy: Biographical NobelPrize.org
- George de Hevesy Wikipedia
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