Asteroid (12423) Slotin

Named in honour of Louis Alexander Slotin (b. 1910-12-10 in Winnipeg, Canada, d. 1946-05-30 in Los Alamos, New Mexico), the first undergraduate student at the University of Manitoba to score perfect marks in chemistry and physics. Slotin earned his Ph.D. from King's College in London, United Kingdom, where his work in radiology helped establish radiation therapy as part of the arsenal of modern medicine. In the late 1930s, Slotin continued his work on the physics of the atomic nucleus with Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago. As a result of an accident on 1946-05-21 at the Los Alamos laboratory, Slotin received a lethal dose of radiation, but used his body to shield his co-workers. To provide medical data on the effects of radiation, he insisted that doctors carefully monitor his deteriorating health during the nine days before he died. He is buried in Winnipeg and a city park is named after him.
Name proposed and citation prepared by Peter Jedicke and Robert Jedicke.

 
Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid 

Reference: MPC 45338

Author: 
Anonymous
Name: 
Slotin
Number: 
12423
Designation: 
1995 UQ16
Disc. Date: 
1995-10-17
Discoverer: 
Spacewatch
Disc. Place: 
Kitt Peak