Editing Ernest Lawrence (section)

== Early career ==
In 1926 and 1927, Lawrence received offers of [[assistant professor]]ships from the [[University of Washington]] in [[Seattle]] and the [[University of California at Berkeley|University of California]] at a salary of $3,500 per annum ({{Inflation|US|3500|1927|r=-2|fmt=eq}}). Yale promptly matched the offer of the assistant professorship, but at a salary of $3,000. Lawrence chose to stay at the more prestigious Yale,{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=107–108}} but because he had never been an instructor, the appointment was resented by some of his fellow faculty, and in the eyes of many it still did not compensate for his South Dakota immigrant background.{{sfn|Childs|1968|pp=120–121}}

Lawrence was hired as an [[associate professor]] of physics at the University of California in 1928. He became a full professor two years later, becoming the university's youngest professor.{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|pp=253–254}} Based on [[Frédéric Joliot-Curie|Frédéric]] and [[Irène Joliot-Curie]]'s 1934 published work on [[Induced radioactivity|artificial radioactivity]], Lawrence discovered the [[nitrogen-13]] isotope by firing high-energy protons into a [[carbon-13]] element in his laboratory.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/laureates/joliot-curie/research-profile |title=Prof. Dr. Irène Joliot-Curie Research Profile |access-date=August 12, 2023 |last=Bonolis |first=Luisa |work=Lindau Nobel Mediatheque |date=May 27, 2014 |publisher=Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings}}</ref> He and his team including [[Martin Kamen]] and [[Sam Ruben|Samuel Ruben]] accidentally discovered the [[carbon-14]] isotope by bombarding [[graphite]] with high-energy protons.{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|pp=271}} [[Robert Gordon Sproul]], who became university president the day after Lawrence became a professor,{{sfn|Childs|1968|p=256}} was a member of the [[Bohemian Club]], and he sponsored Lawrence's membership in 1932. Through this club, Lawrence met [[William Henry Crocker]], [[Edwin Pauley]], and [[John Francis Neylan]]. They were influential men who helped him obtain money for his energetic nuclear particle investigations. There was great hope for medical uses to come from the development of particle physics, and this led to much of the early funding that Lawrence was able to obtain for research.{{sfn|Brechin|1999|p=312}}

While at Yale, Lawrence met Mary Kimberly (Molly) Blumer, the eldest of four daughters of George Blumer, the dean of the [[Yale School of Medicine]].<ref name=lmdowml>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/Molly-Lawrence-obit.html |publisher=Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |title=Lab mourns death of Molly Lawrence, widow of Ernest O. Lawrence |last=Yarris |first=Lynn |date=January 8, 2003 |access-date=May 9, 2014 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201120/http://www2.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/Molly-Lawrence-obit.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=bklyobitml>{{cite news|url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2003/01/15_obit.html |newspaper=The Berkleyan |title=Obituaries: Mary Lawrence |agency=University of California |date=January 15, 2003 |access-date=May 9, 2014}}</ref> They first met in 1926 and became engaged in 1931,{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|p=259}} and were married on May 14, 1932, at [[Trinity Church on the Green]] in [[New Haven, Connecticut]].{{sfn|Childs|1968|p=182}} They had six children: Eric, Margaret, Mary, Robert, Barbara, and Susan.<ref name=lmdowml /><ref name=cfdmd>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qnFQAAAAIBAJ&pg=3773%2C3928015 |newspaper=Milwaukee Sentinel |last=Allen |first=John F. |title=Cyclotron father's death mourned |date=August 29, 1958 |page=13, part 1 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Lawrence named his son Robert after [[theoretical physicist]] [[Robert Oppenheimer]], his closest friend in Berkeley.{{sfn|Childs|1968|p=309}}{{sfn|Herken|2002|pp=11–15}}<ref name=eghhufr>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VzIaAAAAIBAJ&pg=7245%2C4439868 |newspaper=Milwaukee Journal |last=Kiessling |first=E.C. |title=Even geniuses have human frailties |date=December 17, 1968 |page=24, part 1 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1941, Molly's sister Elsie married [[Edwin McMillan]],{{sfn|Alvarez|1970|p=259}} who would go on to win the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1951 with [[Glenn T. Seaborg]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1951/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1951 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |year=2014 |access-date=June 21, 2015 }}</ref>