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Toshiko Mayeda

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Toshiko Mayeda
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Born
Toshiko K. Kuki

1923 (1923)
Died13 February 2004(2004-02-13) (aged 78–79)
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
Known forStudy of meteorites and of isotopes of oxygen
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
Academic advisorsRobert N. Clayton

Toshiko K. Mayeda (née Kuki) (1923–13 February 2004) was a Japanese American chemist who worked at the Enrico Fermi Institute in the University of Chicago. She worked on climate science and meteorites from 1958 to 2004.

Early life and education

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Toshiko Mayeda was born in Tacoma, Washington.[1] She grew up in Yokkaichi, Mie, and Osaka.[1] When the United States entered World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she and her father Matsusaburo Kuki were sent to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center.[2][3] Whilst there she met her future husband, Harry Mayeda.[4] After the war, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1949.[5]

Research

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Mayeda worked initially as a laboratory assistant to Harold Urey at the University of Chicago, where she was hired initially to wash glassware.[6][7] They used mass spectrometry to measure oxygen isotopes in the shells of marine molluscs which gave information on the prehistoric temperatures of ocean waters and hence paleoclimates.[8] Urey developed the field of cosmochemistry and with Mayeda studied primitive meteorites, also by using oxygen isotope analysis.[9] Later, she worked with Cesare Emiliani on isotopic evaluation of the ice age.[10][11] When Urey retired from the university in 1958, Mayeda was persuaded to remain there by Robert N. Clayton, and collaborate with him on applications of mass spectroscopy.[12] She was described as an indomitable research assistant.[13][14]

Mayeda and Clayton's first research paper considered the use of Bromine pentafluoride to extract Isotopes of oxygen from rocks and minerals.[15] It remains their most cited work.[8] From the 1970s until the late 1990s Mayeda and Clayton became famous for their use of oxygen isotopes to classify meteorites.[12] They developed several tests that were used across the field of meteorite and lunar sample analysis.[16][17][18] They studied variations in the abundances of the stable isotopes of oxygen, oxygen-16, oxygen-17 and oxygen-18,[19] and deduced differences in the formation temperatures of the meteorites.[20] They also worked on the mass spectroscopy and chemistry of the Allende meteorite.[12][21] They published many scientific papers on the "oxygen thermometer" and analysed approximately 300 lunar samples that had been collected during NASAs Apollo Program.[8][14] In 1992, a new type of meteorite, the Brachinite, was identified.[22] Clayton and Mayeda studied the Achondrite meteorites and showed that variations in the oxygen-17 isotope ratios within a planet are due to inhomogeneities in the Solar Nebula.[23] They analysed Shergotty meteorites, proposing that there could have been a water-rich atmosphere on Mars[24] and studied the Bocaiuva meteorite, finding that the Eagle Station meteorite was formed due to impact heating.[25]

In 2002 Mayeda was awarded the Society Merit Prize from the Geochemical Society of Japan.[7] In the same year, an asteroid was named after her.[7] Mayeda's husband, Harry, died in 2003. Mayeda suffered from cancer and died on February 13, 2004.[7] In 2008, the book Oxygen in the Solar System was dedicated to Clayton and Mayeda.[26]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Toshiko K. Mayeda, Chemist, 1923-2004". www-news.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  2. ^ "Japanese American Internee Data File: Toshiko Kuki". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
  3. ^ "Social Welfare Appointment Notes" (PDF). Berkeley. 1943-09-20. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  4. ^ "Japanese American Archival Collection" (PDF). Sacramento State. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  5. ^ "The University of Chicago Magazine: June 2004". magazine.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  6. ^ Van Tiggelen, Bridget (2019). "The women behind the periodic table" (PDF). Nature. 565: 561.
  7. ^ a b c d "Toshiko K. Mayeda, 81". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  8. ^ a b c Shindell, Matthew (2019). "Toshiko Mayeda and the Isotopes of Oxygen". Women in Their Element. pp. 415–421. doi:10.1142/9789811206290_0033. ISBN 978-981-12-0628-3. S2CID 201220619.
  9. ^ Shindell, Matthew (2019). The Life and Science of Harold C. Urey. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226662084.
  10. ^ Emiliani, C.; Mayeda, T.; Selli, R. (1961). "Paleotemperature Analysis of the Plio-Pleistocene Section at Le Castella, Calabria, Southern Italy". Geological Society of America Bulletin. 72 (5): 679. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1961)72[679:PAOTPS]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0016-7606.
  11. ^ The composition of matter : symposium honouring Johannes Geiss on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Steiger, R. von (Rudolf), Gloeckler, G., Mason, G. M. (Glenn Marggraf), 1943-, Geiss, Johannes., International Space Science Institute. New York: Springer. 2007. ISBN 9780387741840. OCLC 209984881.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  12. ^ a b c Clayton, Robert N. (May 2007). "Isotopes: From Earth to the Solar System". Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 35 (1): 1–19. Bibcode:2007AREPS..35....1C. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.35.092006.145059. ISSN 0084-6597.
  13. ^ Wood, John A. (1982). "Citation on the Award of the Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society to Dr. Robert N. Clayton". Meteoritics. 17 (4): 171–174. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1982.tb00090.x.
  14. ^ a b Shindell, Matthew (March 2020). "The indomitable Toshiko Mayeda". Chemistry World. 17 (3): 36–37.
  15. ^ Clayton, Robert N.; Mayeda, Toshiko K. (1963-01-01). "The use of bromine pentafluoride in the extraction of oxygen from oxides and silicates for isotopic analysis". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 27 (1): 43–52. Bibcode:1963GeCoA..27...43C. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(63)90071-1. ISSN 0016-7037.
  16. ^ "Robert N. Clayton, 'one of the giants' of cosmochemistry, 1930-2017". www.myscience.org. 11 January 2018. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  17. ^ "In Memorian, Bob Clayton (1930–2017)" (PDF). Elements Magazine. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  18. ^ Clayton, Robert N.; Onuma, Naoki; Mayeda, Toshiko K. (1976-04-01). "A classification of meteorites based on oxygen isotopes". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 30 (1): 10–18. Bibcode:1976E&PSL..30...10C. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(76)90003-0. ISSN 0012-821X.
  19. ^ Burbine, Thomas H. (2016-12-15). Asteroids: Astronomical and Geological Bodies. Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 9781316867396.
  20. ^ Onuma, Naoki; Clayton, Robert N.; Mayeda, Toshiko K. (1972-02-01). "Oxygen isotope cosmothermometer". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 36 (2): 169–188. Bibcode:1972GeCoA..36..169O. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(72)90005-1. ISSN 0016-7037.
  21. ^ Clayton, R. N.; Onuma, N.; Grossman, L.; Mayeda, T. K. (1977-03-01). "Distribution of the pre-solar component in Allende and other carbonaceous chondrites". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 34 (2): 209–224. Bibcode:1977E&PSL..34..209C. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(77)90005-X. ISSN 0012-821X.
  22. ^ E., Nehru, C.; M., Prinz; K., Weisberg, M.; M., Ebihara; N., Clayton, R.; K., Mayeda, T. (July 1992). "Brachinites: A New Primitive Achondrite Group". Meteoritics. 27 (3): 267. Bibcode:1992Metic..27R.267N. ISSN 0026-1114.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Clayton, Robert N.; Mayeda, Toshiko K. (1996-06-01). "Oxygen isotope studies of achondrites". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 60 (11): 1999–2017. Bibcode:1996GeCoA..60.1999C. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(96)00074-9. ISSN 0016-7037.
  24. ^ Bouvier, A.; et al. (2009). "Martian meteorite chronology and the evolution of the interior of Mars". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 280 (1–4): 285–295. Bibcode:2009E&PSL.280..285B. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.01.042.
  25. ^ Malvin, Daniel J.; Wasson, John T.; Clayton, Robert N.; Mayeda, Toshiko K.; Curvello, Walter Silva (1985). "Bocaiuva-A Silicate-Inclusion Bearing Iron Meteorite Related to the Eagle-Station Pallasites". Meteoritics. 20 (2): 259–273. Bibcode:1985Metic..20..259M. doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1985.tb00864.x. ISSN 0026-1114.
  26. ^ "Solar system book dedicated to Robert Clayton, 'Mr. Oxygen'". University of Chicago News. 22 May 2008. Retrieved 2018-08-05.

Further reading

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