About the author
Edgardo Browne received a BS degree in physics in 1963 and a PhD degree in physics in 1970, both from the University of Cuyo, Argentina. His thesis research, on the nuclear spectroscopy of some actinide elements, was done at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. He was a principal author of the 7th edition of the Table of Isotopes, published in 1978, and since that time has evaluated data for Nuclear Data Sheets and worked on the design and methodology for the Table of Radioactive Isotopes. Beginning in 1982, he has directed the effort which led to the publication of this book, while continuing to participate in the evaluation work of the U.S. Nuclear Data Network. Dr. Browne was a visiting professor at the School of Nuclear Engineering Bariloche, Argentina, for the academic year 1980. Richard B. Firestone received a BS degree in chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1967, and a PhD degree in nuclear chemistry from Michigan State University in 1974. As a postdoctoral fellow from 1974-1978 and an assistant professor of chemistry from 1978-1979, he continued his research in nuclear spectroscopy and in the tracer application of short-lived isotopes at the Michigan State University Cyclotron Laboratory. In 1979 he joined the Isotopes Project at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, where he has evaluated data for Nuclear Data Sheets, developed evaluation methodology, and continued his research on nuclear spectroscopy. In 1985 Dr. Firestone became co-group leader, with Edgardo Browne, of the Isotopes Project. Virginia S. Shirley is an alumna of Winchester-Thurston School, Pittsburgh, and a 1955 graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University, with a BS degree in Chemistry. She received a MS degree in nuclear chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1957, and remained briefly at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) to take part in nuclear spectroscopy research and collaborate on the 5th edition of the Table of Isotopes. She then taught chemistry at Mills College and at the University of California, and did free-lance indexing and editing, prior to returning to LBL in 1961 to work on the 6th and 7th editions of the Table of Isotopes. Mrs. Shirley was co-editor of the latter, and concurrently authored four editions of the Table of Nuclear Moments. Since 1978, she has participated in the evaluation work of the U.S. Nuclear Data Network, and in adapting data from Nuclear Data Sheets for use in the Table of Radioactive Isotopes. She currently devotes spare time to community science and music programs for children, as a board member of the Young People's Symphony Orchestra and mathematics liaison at Berkeley High School.
