This Day in History: 1932-03-26

American nuclear chemist James Andrew Harris is born. Harris was involved in the discovery of elements 104 and 105 (rutherfordium and dubnium, respectively). Harris spent most of his scientific career working in the in the Heavy Isotopes Production Group of the Nuclear Chemistry department of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley. It was there that he designed and purified the targets that were used to discover elements 104 and 105. In 1977, Harris was promoted to Head of Engineering and Technical Services Division at Lawrence. Harris retired from the lab in 1988. Learn more.