 He left college during World War II to serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a navigation instructor, then returned to UI and earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1947.Batzel worked for General Electric for a year at nearby Hanford, Washington, then attended graduate school at the University of California in Berkeley.He earned a Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry in 1951, studying under Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, a Nobel Prize winner that same year.