[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 114 (Friday, July 30, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING JOSEPH H. HAMILTON

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JIM COOPER

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 30, 2010

  Mr. COOPER. Madam Speaker, to a boy from Louisiana, the building 
blocks of life are food, faith, and a healthy dose of Southern 
hospitality. Joseph Hamilton, grew up to learn that our world is not so 
simple.
  By January 2010 Hamilton had played a crucial role in an astounding 
discovery. He helped find something that no one knew existed. His work 
was critical in forming a multinational research team, and carrying out 
the discovery of Element 117--Ununseptium--the newest addition to the 
Periodic Table of Elements.
  Hamilton's life started like that of any southern boy. Born in the 
humble town of Ferriday, Louisiana, he stayed true to his Baptist 
upbringing. He attended Christian Mississippi College, where God's 
calling led him to be a physicist. Hamilton then took his studies to 
Indiana University, where he studied nuclear physics and the elements. 
Their tiny atoms and their nuclei are invisible except to a select 
group of scientists with very advanced equipment. For everyone outside 
this elite group, the existence of atoms and their nuclei is purely a 
matter of faith. The only way to observe individual atoms of elements 
is through their impact on the world.
  A skeptic may say that Christianity and physics, the two most 
important parts of Hamilton's life, cannot coexist, but Hamilton 
disagrees. He has pursued his passion without abandoning his beliefs, 
and has found that the two go gracefully hand in hand. As a professor 
at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, he and his wife have 
coauthored more than twenty papers on the harmony of physics and 
religion.
  Professor Hamilton has dedicated himself to the growth of his 
students. Recognizing that they will soon take his place in research, 
Hamilton has supervised over 60 PhD dissertations and over 100 post-
doctoral fellows at Vanderbilt. He includes his students in almost 
everything he does. One of his few regrets in his storied career is 
that he did not intimately involve his students in the discovery of 
Element 117.
  Hamilton's research career at Vanderbilt over the last fifty-two 
years has taken him around the world. Russia, China, Sweden, and 
Germany have been but a few stops on his journeys. The creation of 
Element 117 in Dubna, Russia, just north of Moscow, was the result of a 
multinational project that Hamilton helped create. He believes that 
scientific discovery is a global effort, not a local one. Collaboration 
is key because science is one of the few things that unite us all in 
peaceful ways. Scientific principles apply around the world, regardless 
of race, creed, and nationality.
  The first collaborative project that Hamilton initiated, the 
University Isotope Separator, has been a key operation at the Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory for more than forty years. This began as a 
collaboration of 11 Southeastern universities, ORNL and the State of 
Tennessee. Hamilton is also a founder of the Joint Institute for Heavy 
Ion Research, a cooperation of Vanderbilt, the University of Tennessee, 
and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This Institute has become a world-
class scientific resource. Moreover, this Institute opened doors that 
helped transform ORNL through the development of three major new joint 
institutes.
  By January 2010, Hamilton's critical role in a joint Russian-American 
project came to fruition in the creation of six atoms of Element 117. 
While this new radioactive element has a half-life of only 78 
milliseconds faster than the blink of an eye--its discovery points 
towards a fascinating possibility. Its half-life is longer than that of 
other recently discovered super heavy elements, and suggests that we 
may be on the path towards finding new, more stable, super heavy 
elements.
  Hamilton and his coworkers' discovery will be forever emblazoned on 
the walls of chemistry and physics labs worldwide as the newest member 
of the Periodic Table of Elements. Generations of scientists will 
discover Element 117's properties, but no matter what is learned about 
Element 117, this Southern gentleman will always know that his work 
added to the building blocks of our world.

                          ____________________