Natural radioactivity 1896 - 1976: eighty years of research and discovery

This keynote address highlights the 80 years that have elapsed since Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity. Two periods, the classical and the modern, are discussed. Highlights of the classical, pre-word War II, period include the physical and radiochemical investigations carried on by the Curies, Eve, Soddy, Rutherford, Elster, Greitel, Thomson, Strutt, Hess and Crookes. The modern period has been characterized by more elaborate instrumentation and by radiation surveying and monitoring in the biosphere. The work of R.D. Evans, former Health Physics Society president, R.A. Milliken, J. Hursch and M. Eisenbud is highlighted