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Programme Monitoring and Assessment Research Centre in London. In 1993, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences marked Rafter’s 80th birthday by naming their radiocarbon dating facility the Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory.
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in 1938. Rafter worked as a schoolteacher until a job as a research scientist became available at the
Dominion Laboratory in 1940. Rafter initially concentrated on analysis of
226:, New Zealand in on 5 March 1913. He was educated at St Patrick’s College, Wellington, and Victoria University College (BSc in 1935 and MSc in chemistry in 1938). Although
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Effect’ when they published their results in 1957. Rafter also encouraged the use of naturally occurring stable (non-radioactive)
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In 1948, following the establishment of a nuclear sciences team at the DSIR, Rafter was sent to the United States to train in
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Athol Rafter was one of New
Zealand’s pioneering nuclear scientists, that started his career as part of
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In 1959, Rafter was appointed the inaugural director of the DSIR’s
Institute of Nuclear Sciences, in
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Nuclear scientist Rodger Sparks recognises Athol Rafter’s contribution to radiocarbon dating in
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and rising levels of radiocarbon in the atmosphere, a phenomenon he and
Fergusson called the ‘
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People associated with
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After retiring from the DSIR, Rafter spent two years as director of the
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for geological research, developing techniques for use in
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and to visit nuclear establishments in the United States,
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New
Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire
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People educated at St. Patrick's
College, Wellington
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