In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 29 April 1893
- Died
- 5 January 1981
- Birthplace
- Walkerton, Indiana, United States
- Country
- United States
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- The discovery of deuterium, isotope chemistry and planetary research
- Doctorate
- Chemistry, University of California, 1923
- Deuterium research
- Spectroscopic work with Brickwedde and Murphy, 1931
- Nobel Prize
- Chemistry, 1934
Why this life matters
His career links carefully interpreted laboratory signals with larger questions about the history of the Earth and the Solar System.
Timeline
Key moments
Birth
Born in Walkerton on 29 April.
Montana degree
Completed a zoology degree.
Doctorate
Completed graduate work in chemistry before study in Copenhagen.
Columbia
Joined Columbia University.
Heavy-hydrogen evidence
Examined spectra with George Murphy using samples prepared by Ferdinand Brickwedde.
Nobel Prize
Received the Chemistry prize for heavy hydrogen.
Chicago
Moved to the Institute for Nuclear Studies.
Death
Died in La Jolla on 5 January.
Teaching, zoology and a move into chemistry
Urey was born in Walkerton, Indiana, on 29 April 1893. After high school he taught in rural schools for three years before entering the University of Montana in 1914. He graduated in zoology in 1917, worked as an industrial research chemist and returned to Montana as a chemistry instructor. Graduate study under Gilbert N. Lewis at the University of California led to a chemistry doctorate in 1923. A fellowship then took him to Niels Bohr’s institute in Copenhagen. The sequence crossed school teaching, biology, industry and theoretical training before his best-known isotope work.
Sources for this section: [1]
Heavy hydrogen as a testable possibility
After work at Johns Hopkins, Urey joined Columbia University in 1929. Hydrogen’s possible heavier isotope presented both a theoretical and experimental question: where should its spectral lines appear, and how could a weak signal be distinguished from instrumental artifacts? Urey’s later Nobel lecture describes calculations of the expected wavelengths and the reasoning behind using samples with different isotope concentrations. The theory guided an observation that could fail, rather than merely supplying a name for an unexplained line. His lecture dates the decisive spectroscopy with George Murphy to the autumn of 1931.
Brickwedde’s samples and Murphy’s spectroscopy
Ferdinand Brickwedde at the United States Bureau of Standards prepared hydrogen samples, and Urey and his research assistant George Murphy examined them spectroscopically. The lecture reports agreement with predicted wavelengths, a fine-structure feature, the behaviour of lines under conditions favouring atomic spectra, and stronger lines in enriched samples. Together these observations helped rule out alternative explanations such as grating artifacts. The credit is therefore more specific than a lone-discoverer label: preparation, calculation and measurement each mattered. The 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Urey alone, but the award’s sole recipient was not the experiment’s sole participant.
Isotope chemistry and the history of the Earth
Urey’s interests grew beyond identifying heavy hydrogen. His biographical account records work with E. W. Washburn on hydrogen isotopes, studies of molecular structure and later research on paleotemperatures and the origins of planets. The underlying opportunity was to use measurable chemical differences to investigate processes that could not be watched directly. He coauthored Atoms, Molecules and Quanta with A. E. Ruark in 1930, edited the Journal of Chemical Physics from 1933 to 1940 and published The Planets in 1952. These activities show a continuing combination of theory, laboratory chemistry and scientific synthesis.
Sources for this section: [1]
War research and later university appointments
During the Second World War Urey directed war research associated with Columbia’s atomic-bomb programme, including isotope work. He moved to the University of Chicago’s Institute for Nuclear Studies in 1945 and became Martin A. Ryerson Professor in 1952. A visiting year at Oxford preceded his move to the University of California in 1958. These appointments belong to different stages of his career; an old biography’s present tense is not evidence of a current role. He died in La Jolla on 5 January 1981. His scientific record is especially useful for understanding how a small spectral difference could open research questions across several fields.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Harold Urey
- Which Nobel Prize did Harold Urey receive?
- He received the 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering heavy hydrogen, or deuterium.
- Who worked with him on the deuterium evidence?
- His Nobel lecture credits Ferdinand Brickwedde with sample preparation and George Murphy with the spectroscopy undertaken with Urey.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Janet Rowley
Compare isotope evidence with another Chicago researcher’s use of repeatable patterns in genetics.
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Read a different Nobel-recognised Chicago career in theoretical astrophysics.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Nobel PrizeHarold C. Urey: Biographical
Nobel biographical narrative read; historical appointments are dated.
- 2. Nobel PrizeHarold C. Urey: Nobel Facts
Prize category, dates and sole prize share checked against the official award record.
- 3. Nobel FoundationHarold C. Urey: Some Thermodynamic Properties of Hydrogen and Deuterium, lecture of 14 February 1935, selected pages 339–343
Selected opening printed pages 339–343 read for the discovery account. The lecture was delivered on 14 February 1935 for the 1934 prize; it is retrospective evidence, not a claim that a 1931 laboratory notebook was inspected. Later thermodynamic tables and technical procedures are not reproduced.
