Manhattan Project & Beyond
Dr. Coryell was a member of the Clinton Laboratories team, ijn 1945 with Jacob Marinsky and Lawrence E. Glendenin. There the three men isolated the previously undocumented rare-earth element later named “promethium” by extracting it from fission products and also by bombarding neodymium with neutrons. The team isolated promethium via ion-exchange chromatography, a buffering technique used in biomolecule purification. It separates the molecules on the basis of their charge by exploiting the interaction of them to the buffering agent in reiterative cycles until they isolate their preferred one.
Publication of the finding was delayed until later due to the war. Marinsky and Glendenin announced the discovery at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in September 1947. Upon the suggestion of Grace Mary, Coryell’s wife, the team named the new element for the mythical Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and was punished for the act by Zeus instead of “clintonium” for the facility where it was isolated.
Dr. Coryell won the Atomic Energy Commission’s citation and medal for advancement in nuclear chemistry in 1970. and was a consultant of the commission laboratories since 1946.
In 1960 he won the American Chemical Society’s award for nuclear applications in chemistry. In his award address, he said that all the heavy chemical elements in the solar system were born in the death throes of at least one star that exploded more than five billion years ago.
The Charles D. Coryell Award of the Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology of the American Chemical Society, which is awarded annually to undergraduate students doing research projects in nuclear-related areas, is named in his honor.
Coryell’s early years
Charles DuBois Coryell was born on February 21, 1912 at 6:45 am in Los Angeles, according to CC Zain who lists him as one of his notables. Dr. Coryell was an American chemist and a co-discoverer of the element promethium, a building block for the nuclear reactor. Coryell earned a Ph.D at California Institute of Technology in 1935, entering the student body shortly after the discovery the Pluto in 1930.
During the late 1930s he engaged in research on the structure of hemoglobin in association with Dr. Linus Pauling who also is a double Piscean (ascendant and Sun). [mfn] I disagree with Church of Light on this one and find Pauling has an Arian ascendant. The Taurus ascendant on Astro.com is incorrect. [/mfn]
Coryell taught at UCLA before 1942 when he accepted a position in the Manhattan Project, for which he was Chief of the Fission Products Section, both at the University of Chicago (1942–1946) and at Clinton Laboratories (now Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee (1943–1946) His group had responsibility for characterizing radioactive isotopes created by the fission of uranium and developing a process for chemical separation of plutonium.
Scoping out Coryell’s Chart
Dr. Coryell is a Jupiter Bucket in the 10th house with his Sun partile his Ascendant at 03 Pisces, two angels bringing protection to mankind (just like Prometheus did with fire) highlighting how he was able to make his dreams an effective reality. His North Node in Aries, makes him lucky in love, as his marriage to Grace Mary testifies, as well as giving him a desire to assert his dreams and convictions.
Neptune, often called the “chemical planet” is his most aspected planet and his focal determinator because it is the handle to his bucket planetary pattern. As it resides in Cancer and is in his 5th house it suggests he and Mrs. Coryell were well suited and “made” for one another, not to mention he really loved chemistry.
Notes: This chart was updated on 26 May 2023.
