Clair Patterson

Clair Cameron Patterson was an American geochemist who spent his entire professional career at the California Institute of Technology. In collaboration with George Tilton he developed the lead-lead dating method, adapting established procedures for uranium-lead dating, and by using lead isotopic data from the Canyon Diablo meteorite he calculated an age for the Earth of 4.55 billion years, a figure far more accurate than earlier estimates and one that has remained largely unchallenged since 1956. His research also uncovered widespread industrial lead contamination in the atmosphere and human body, work that proved seminal in the banning of leaded gasoline and leaded solder in food cans.