 Eric Jette's CM-8 (Uranium and Plutonium Metallurgy) group found that they could stabilise plutonium in its malleable δ phase by alloying it with gallium.For his services, he was awarded the Medal for Merit by the President Harry S. Truman in 1946.In 1945, Kennedy was recruited as a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and was installed as Chairman of the Department of Chemistry in 1946, a role he continued in until his death.