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Thomas W. Clarkson

researcher

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 10, 2023
Entity authorityQ15429086 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas W. Clarkson is a heavy metals toxicologist and an emeritus professor in the department of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. His area of expertise is mercury, and he has been involved in the Seychelles Child Development Study. After Karen Wetterhahn's death, Clarkson's lab analyzed the dimethylmercury levels that had been responsible for her death.

Education

Clarkson has a bachelor's degree in chemistry (1953) and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Manchester (1956).

Selected publications

Clarkson, Thomas W.; Miller, Morton W. (1973). Mercury, Mercurials and Mercaptans. Charles C. Thomas Publishing.

Suzuki, Tsuguyoshi; Clarkson, Thomas W. (1991). Advances in Mercury Toxicology. Plenum Press.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Thomas W. Clarkson” as researcher. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Thomas, Clarkson and researcher.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1953, 1956, 1973, 1991—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Thomas, Clarkson and researcher providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Thomas W. Clarkson”, the useful work is to connect “researcher” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 10, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q15429086. VIAF identifies the subject as 64087848. The Library of Congress control number is n83138023. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 1956, 1973 and 1991.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Thomas W. Clarkson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Thomas W. Clarkson primary sources, Thomas W. Clarkson archive and Thomas research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Thomas W. Clarkson”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Thomas W. Clarkson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.