Joseph Gilbert Hamilton
| Joseph Gilbert Hamilton | |
|---|---|
 Robert Marshak (left), a scientist and author of Menson Physics volunteered to drink radiosodium. Joseph Gilbert Hamilton at controls, January 1939.
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| Born | November 11, 1907 |
| Died | February 18, 1957 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | physics |
| Institutions | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| Alma mater | University of California |
| Known for | medical effects of exposure to radioactive isotopes |
Joseph Gilbert Hamilton (November 11, 1907 – February 18, 1957) was an American professor of Medical Physics, Experimental Medicine, General Medicine, and Experimental Radiology as well as director (1948-1957) of the Crocker Laboratory, part of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Hamilton studied the medical effects of exposure to radioactive isotopes and he pioneered their use in the treatment and diagnosis of disease. He was married with the painter Leah Hamilton.
Hamilton received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1929 from the University of California. He studied medicine in Berkeley, and he interned at the University of California Hospital, San Francisco. He was awarded his M.D. degree in 1936. The cyclotron in Berkeley was then producing useful amounts of radioactive isotopes, and even before he received his degree, Hamilton became interested in their effects on living tissue. In a series of papers published in 1937 he detailed early medical trials using radiosodium, followed by papers detailing the use of the radioactive isotopes of potassium, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Radioactive iodine was found to be particularly useful in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disorders.
Hamilton’s studies of isotope retention in humans, especially of radioactive strontium and the transuranic elements, were the principal source for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission’s estimates of tolerance limits of these substances. As part of the Manhattan Project in 1944, he and his research team began studies on the effect of plutonium on humans. In trials conducted 1945-1946, plutonium was injected in humans both healthy and those with cancer. The trials were terminated by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1950.
Hamilton died at the age of 49 of radiation induced leukemia.
[edit] References
- Moss, William & Eckhardt, Roger (1995) The Human Plutonium Injection Experiments, Los Alamos Science 23, 177-233;
- Welsome, Eileen (1999) The plutonium files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War Dial press, New York. ISBN 0-385-31402-7 ;
- "James Gilbert Murdoch Hamilton". Lancet (ENGLAND) 2 (7769): 189–90. July 1972. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 4114093.
- LAWRENCE, E O; GARRISON W M (August 1957). "J.G. Hamilton, medical physicist and physician". Science 126 (3268): 294. doi:10.1126/science.126.3268.294. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 13454816.
[edit] External links
- "In Memoriam: Joseph Gilbert Hamilton" University of California 1959;
- "Joe Hamilton's Cavalier Approach to Radiation" comments by Dr. John W. Gofman, December 20, 1994, from Internet Archives;
- "The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's Archives and Records Office's Role in the US Department of Energy's Human Radiation Experiment Records Search and Retrieval Project" by Lori L. Hefner STAMA Australia Newsletter No. 2, September 1995, from Internet Archives ;
