Harold Clayton Urey was born on November 10, 1903, in New York City. He was the son of Harold J. Urey, whose interests included physics and chemistry. Harold himself was interested in physics and astronomy and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1922
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He then attended Columbia University, where he received his B.A. degree and worked under Ernest Rutherford and William Lawrence Bragg (who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915). In 1927 he received his Ph.D.
degree from Columbia University. After receiving his Ph.D., Urey became a professor at Columbia University until 1946 when he left to become director of the lab for Physical Research at the University of Chicago (1946-1949). In 1949, Urey became an associate director of the Laboratory for Nuclear Studies at Princeton University (1949-57).
At that time Richard Garwin joined Urey's group and became an outstanding member of the group. Between 1957 and 1963, Richard Garwin and Richard Wilson were members of this group and Richard Wilson was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1972. The group specialized in studies of the formation and decay of radioactive elements such as uranium, thorium, plutonium, and others.
The results of their work led to improvements in nuclear reactor technology which helped to make atomic energy a practical source of power production.