Clarice Evone Phelps (née Salone) is an American chemist and researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She was part of the team involved with the discovery of element 117, Tennessine. Her research includes actinide and lanthanide separations for medical use isotopes.
Colleagues at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia used the purified berkelium-249 to create and confirm the existence of tennessine. Tennessine was produced by bombarding atoms of berkelium-249 with ions of calcium-48. Tennessine is called a super-heavy element since its atomic numberatomic number is 100 or higher, meaning it has 100 or more protons in its nuclei. Tennessine formed when calcium with atomic number 20 and berkelium with atomic number 97 fused to make an element with 117 protons in its nuclei.
Phelps works with the graduate chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s ASCEND program which teaches Knoxville high schoolKnoxville high school students about robotics, drones, circuitry and coding. Phelps is a member of the American Chemical Society as well as the Educational Outreach Committee for the ORNL as the diversity chair for Knox County Schools.