Libby, Willard Frank (1908-1980), an American chemist, received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1960. He earned the award for discovering carbon 14, or radiocarbon, in 1947, and finding a way to use it to determine the age of prehistoric plant and animal remains (see Radiocarbon ).
Libby was born in Grand Valley, Colorado. He graduated from the University of California, and taught there from 1933 to 1945. He then taught at the Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. In 1950, he became a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission. After serving as a member of the commission from 1954 to 1959, he rejoined the faculty of the University of California.
