Leona Woods

Physicist who helped build Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor

What is Leona Woods known for?

Leona Harriet Woods, later known as Leona Woods Marshall and Leona Woods Marshall Libby, was a distinguished American physicist born on August 9, 1919, in La Grange, Illinois. She was an alumna of Lyons Township High School in her hometown. Woods is notable for her significant contribution to the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. Remarkably, at the age of 23, she was the youngest and the only female member of the team.

As a key member of the research team, Woods was instrumental in using Geiger counters for analysis during experimentation with the world's first nuclear reactor. Moreover, she was the only woman present when the reactor went critical (active). She also evaluated the cross-section of xenon, which had poisoned the first Hanford production reactor upon initiation.

After the war, she joined the Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. Her career took her to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and New York University, where she became a professor in 1962. Her research primarily involved high-energy physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.

In her personal life, she divorced John Marshall in 1966 and married Nobel laureate Willard Libby. Later, she joined the University of Colorado as a professor and became a staff member at the RAND Corporation. Towards the end of her career, Woods took great interest in ecological and environmental issues. She devised a unique method of using isotope ratios in tree rings to study climate change and became a strong advocate of food irradiation as a means of eliminating harmful bacteria.

Woods's journey as an exceptional scientist began when she graduated from Lyons Township High School at 14. She went on to earn her Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1938, at the tender age of 18. Despite challenges and warnings about her career prospects in academia as a woman, she bravely chose to continue her studies and became a graduate student of Robert Mulliken, a future Nobel laureate.

Leona Woods contributed significantly to propelling scientific research and was an inspiration to many aspiring female scientists. Despite passing away in Santa Monica, California, on November 10, 1986, her legacy continues to inspire and impact the scientific community.