Iowa State alumna and winner of the 1997 National Medal of Science Darleane Hoffman will be visiting campus today and Tuesday.

Hoffman’s visit will close the 10th anniversary celebration of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology. The IPRT manages the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory at ISU.

Anita Rollins, communications specialist for IPRT, who is coordinating Hoffman’s visit, said Hoffman is a pioneer in nuclear chemistry who has “demystified radioactivity.”

Hoffman was a professor of chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley, before landing her current position as a faculty senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

She said she came to ISU in 1944 and changed her major from home economics to chemistry, primarily because of a wonderful chemistry teacher.

“When I switched to chemistry, I usually was the only woman in the classes,” Hoffman said.

She said that during the summer after her junior year, she worked full time as an undergraduate research assistant in what later became the Ames Laboratory. She continued working there part time during the following school year.

Hoffman received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and her Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from ISU.

While she was a division leader of the isotope and nuclear chemistry division at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, she studied fission properties.

Hoffman also discovered plutonium 244 in nature and studied its environmental behavior.

At Berkeley, Hoffman has performed fundamental nuclear and chemical studies. She also enjoys training and teaching students who will be future scientists.

The 1997 National Medal of Science honored Hoffman for her “discovery of plutonium in nature and her pioneering studies of new chemical elements and their activities as they decay,” a press release stated.

During her visit at ISU, Hoffman will speak to chemistry groups and tour campus laboratories, Rollins said.

She will give a lecture titled “Frontiers of Heavy Element Nuclear and Radiochemistry,” this afternoon at 4 in Room 1352 of Gilman Hall. A ceremony will follow the speech at 5 p.m. to honor Hoffman for her achievements.

On Tuesday, following a 6:30 p.m. reception in her honor, Hoffman will speak about “The Transuranium People: The Inside Story” at 7:30 p.m. in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

“I will talk about the discovery and the people, and how I came to be one of the transuranium people,” she said.

Hoffman said she also looks forward to speaking about women in science.

“It’s important for women to feel they can pursue fields in science,” she said. “It’s particularly rewarding and important.”