Finding Aid to the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Information and Computing Sciences Division records of Joseph G. Hamilton and the Biomedical Research Group, 1943-1975

Selected Search Terms

These papers have been indexed in the International Catalog of Sources for History of Physics and Allied Sciences (ICOS) using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms.

Historical Note

The laboratory was founded as the University of California Radiation Laboratory in 1931 by Ernest Orlando Lawrence, a University of California Berkeley physicist who won the 1939 Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of the cyclotron, a circular particle accelerator that opened the door to high-energy physics. It is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory, operated by the University of California. The name of the laboratory has evolved since its founding: Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (1931-1958), the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1959-1995), and currently the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1995-present).

Joseph G. Hamilton (1907-1957) was a professor of medical physics and director of the William H. Crocker Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as director of the UC Berkeley Crocker Laboratory (1948- ) and director of the 60" Cyclotron at Crocker Lab (1942-1948).

Hamilton's research focused on the medical aspects of radioactivity and specifically on the metabolism of radionuclides. During World War II Hamilton directed, as part of the Plutonium Project, an extensive investigation of the metabolism of the principle fission products and fissionable elements in experimental animals. He supervised the biological aspects of the program, including the development of new techniques of radioautography, and the production and isolation of large numbers of radioelements in the carrier free form. Hamilton also worked as part of a larger experiment under the Manhattan Project involving the injection of human subjects with plutonium to study the metabolism of plutonium in human beings. Research on radionuclide metabolism by the Crocker Laboratory group continued under Hamilton's direction in the years following the war.

Scope and Contents of Collection

This collection contain the microfilm copies of the collection of data, research, notes, memos, biographies, reports, correspondence, and publications dealing with radiation experiments conducted by Joseph Hamilton and the Biomedical Research Group of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Information and Computing Sciences Division. The records document experiments and research in the areas of the effects of radiation and radioactive elements and in some cases involve human experiments. The records also contain Patricia Durbin's follow up study of the people injected with plutonium from 1945 to 1947. Some of the records deal with Durbin's research documenting early work with radioactive materials in animals and humans. Human studies include astatine in patients with goiter or adenoma, and a study of milk and baby food in babies tracing natural levels of strontium and other elements. The records were brought together by the Department of Energy Human Radiation Experiment Search and Retrieval Project at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Archives and Records Office, in response to DOE Secretary O'Leary's "Openness Initiative" directive to find all such records. These records have already been the object of litigation-driven records searches. The original records are currently in the possession of Durbin who allowed the Archives and Records Office to microfilm the records in 1994.

Access to Collection

This collection requires permission for access. Please contact the repository for more information, via email at aro@lbl.gov.

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