In 1927 he entered the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his B.S. in 1931, and his Ph.D. in 1933,[REF] writing his doctoral thesis on the "Radioactivity of ordinary elements, especially samarium and neodymium: method of detection"[REF] under the supervision of Wendell Mitchell Latimer [REF].
Libby was appointed Instructor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, in 1933 [REF].