WSU grad Abelson dies

PULLMAN – Washington State University graduate Philip Abelson, who worked on the Manhattan Project and did pioneering research that led to nuclear-powered submarines, has died at the age of 91.

Abelson died Sunday in Bethesda, Md., WSU said Friday.

A Tacoma native, Abelson was best known for his co-discovery of neptunium (element 93) and a method he devised for large-scale enrichment of uranium for use as a power source in submarines, WSU said.

In 1962, he was the first recipient of the school’s Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award.

A graduate of Tacoma’s Lincoln High School, Abelson went to Washington State and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1933 and master’s degree in physics in 1935. In 1939, he earned a doctorate in nuclear physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

During the Manhattan Project to develop atomic weapons in World War II, Abelson worked in uranium separation processing and fission products identification.

He served as president of the Carnegie Institution from 1971 to 1978, and on many national advisory committees, helping shape national science and technology policy.

Abelson’s wife, Neva, was also a WSU graduate and outstanding scientist. She was one of the first women to graduate with a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and codeveloped a crucial test for the Rh factor in blood. She died in 2000.

In 2002, WSU renamed the former Science Hall building as Abelson Hall in honor of Abelson and his wife.

The Abelsons are survived by their daughter, Ellen A. Cherniavsky, an engineer in Silver Spring, Md.