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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Charles D. Coryell

Chemist, Research AssociateChicago, IL

Oak Ridge, TN
Manhattan Project VeteranProject Worker/Staff
Charles Coryell

Charles D. Coryell (1912-1971) was an American chemist. 

In 1942 Coryell left MIT and became Chief of the Fission Products Section of the Manhattan Project. He first worked the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago and then at Oak Ridge. Coryell’s group was in charge was of separating fission products at the two labs. Researchers in his group identified and characterized hundreds of fission product radioisotopes. Coryell and two other researchers discovered the element Promethium at Oak Ridge.

After the war, Coryell joined the faculty of MIT’s chemistry department where he worked until his death in 1971.

In 1960 Coryell won the Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry.

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