Kenneth Ross MacKenzie

Kenneth Ross MacKenzie
Born	June 15, 1912 Portland, Oregon, United States
Died	July 4, 2002(2002-07-04) (aged 90) Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	BS University of British Columbia, PhD University of California, Berkeley
Known for	Synthesis of astatine
Scientific career
Fields	nuclear physics
Institutions	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles
Doctoral advisor	Ernest Lawrence

Kenneth Ross MacKenzie (June 15, 1912 – July 4, 2002) together with Dale R. Corson and Emilio Segrè, synthesized the element astatine, in 1940. MacKenzie received his PhD under Ernest Lawrence at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Lawrence, MacKenzie, and their colleagues devised the first cyclotron. He was a professor of physics at UCLA, where he and Reg Richardson built UCLA's first cyclotron and later a bevatron. MacKenzie devised MacKenzie buckets which are plasma sources created by lining vacuum chamber walls with permanent magnets of alternating polarity to suppress plasma electron losses, that are widely used to this day. He later traveled around the world, helping to troubleshoot various country's cyclotron problems. Later in life, he studied plasma physics and dark matter.

References

• "In Memoriam Kenneth Ross MacKenzie". University of California.