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Urey was born in Walkerton, Indiana. After briefly teaching in rural schools, Urey earned a degree in zoology from the University of Montana and a Ph.D. in chemistry, studying thermodynamics under Gilbert N. Lewis at the University of California, Berkeley.
At Berkeley, Urey was influence by the work of physicist Raymond T. BirgeRaymond Thayer Birge ( March 13, 1887 March 22, 1980) was a physicist. Born Brooklyn, New York, into an academic scientific family, Birge obtained his Doctor's Degree from Wisconsin University in 1913. In the same year he married Irene A. The Birges had t and soon joined Niels BohrNiels Henrik David Bohr ( October 7, 1885 November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made essential contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics. Bohr's contributions to physics Bohr's model of atomic structure. The theory that in CopenhagenCopenhagen Kobenhavn in Danish) is the capital of Denmark. The contemporary Danish name for the city is a corruption of the original designation for the city Kobmandshavn meaning Merchants' Harbour. The English name Copenhagen is derived from the German n to work on atomic structure at the Institute for Theoretical Physics. On his return to the US in 1924Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 See also 1924 in aviation 1924 in film 1924 in literature 1924 in mu he taught at Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University is a prestigious private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland. Hopkins holds many "firsts" in American education: it was the first university in the United States to put an emphasis on research, founde, and then at ColumbiaColumbia University officially known as Columbia University in the City of New York is a private institution of higher education. It is one of the world's foremost research universities and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1754 under a royal charter where he assembled a team of associates that included Rudolph Schoenheimer, David Rittenberg and T. I. Taylor .
During this time, Urey isolated deuterium by repeatedly distilling a sample of liquid hydrogen. In 1931, he and his associates went on to demonstrate the existence of heavy water. Urey was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for this work.
During World War II, Urey's team at Columbia worked on a number of research programs that contributed towards the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb for the United States. Most importantly, they developed the gaseous diffusion method to separate uranium-235 from uranium-238. In autumn 1941, Urey, with G. B. Pegram, led a diplomatic mission to England to establishing co-operation on development of the atomic bomb.
After the war, he became professor of chemistry at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, then Ryerson professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago before progressing to honorific offices at the University of California, San Diego.
In later life, Urey helped develop the field of cosmochemistry and is credited with coining the term. His work on oxygen-18 led him to develop theories about the abundance of the chemical elements on earth and of their abundance and evolution in the stars. Urey summarised his work in the book The Planets: Their Origin and Development ( 1952). Urey specuated that the early terrestrial atmosphere was probably composed of ammonia, methane and hydrogen; it was one of his Chicago graduate students, Stanley L. Miller, who showed that, if such a mixture be exposed to ultraviolet radiation and to water, it can interact to produce amino acids, the building blocks of life (see Miller-Urey experiment). He died at La Jolla, California, and is buried in the Fairfield Cemetery in DeKalb County, Indiana.
Apart from his Nobel Prize, he also won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1966. A crater on the Moon is also named after him.