Jacob A. Marinsky

Who was Jacob A. Marinsky?

Jacob Akiba Marinsky was a chemist who was the co-discoverer of the element promethium.

Marinsky was born in Buffalo, New York, and attended the University at Buffalo, entering at age 16 and receiving a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1939.

During World War II he was employed as a chemist for the Manhattan Project, working at Clinton Laboratories from 1944 to 1946. In 1945, together with Lawrence E. Glendenin and Charles D. Coryell, he isolated the previously undocumented rare earth element 61. Marinsky and Glendenin produced promethium both by extraction from fission products and by bombarding neodymium with neutrons. They isolated it using ion-exchange chromatography. 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 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. They had also considered naming it "clintonium" for the facility where it was isolated.