Glenn T. Seaborg
Encyclopedia
Glenn Theodore Seaborg was an American scientist who won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements", contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, and developed the actinide concept
, which led to the current arrangement of the actinoid series in the periodic table of the elements
. He spent most of his career as an educator and research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley
where he became the second Chancellor in its history and served as a University Professor. Seaborg advised ten presidents from Harry S. Truman
to Bill Clinton
on nuclear policy and was the chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
from 1961 to 1971 where he pushed for commercial nuclear energy
and peaceful applications of nuclear science. Throughout his career, Seaborg worked for arms control. He was signator to the Franck Report
and contributed to the achievement of the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
. Seaborg was a well-known advocate of science education and federal funding for pure research. He was a key contributor to the report "A Nation at Risk
" as a member of President Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education
and was the principal author of the Seaborg Report on academic science issued in the closing days of the Eisenhower administration.
Seaborg was the principal or co-discoverer of ten elements: plutonium
, americium
, curium
, berkelium
, californium
, einsteinium
, fermium
, mendelevium
, nobelium
and element 106, which was named seaborgium
in his honor while he was still living. He also developed more than 100 atomic isotopes, and is credited with important contributions to the chemistry of plutonium, originally as part of the Manhattan Project
where he developed the extraction process used to isolate the plutonium fuel for the second atomic bomb
. Early in his career, Seaborg was a pioneer in nuclear medicine and developed numerous isotopes of elements with important applications in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, most notably iodine-131, which is used in the treatment of thyroid disease. In addition to his theoretical work in the development of the actinide concept which placed the actinide series beneath the lanthanide series on the periodic table, Seaborg proposed the placement of super-heavy elements in the transactinide and superactinide series. After sharing the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Edwin McMillan
, he received approximately 50 honorary doctorates and numerous other awards and honors. The list of things named after Seaborg ranges from his atomic element to an asteroid. Seaborg was a prolific author, penning more than 50 books and 500 journal articles, often in collaboration with others. He received so many awards and honors that he was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person with the longest entry in Who's Who in America.
(Flemish
and Walloon
) ancestry, Seaborg was born in Ishpeming, Michigan
, the son of Herman Theodore (Ted) and Selma Olivia Erickson Seaborg. He had one sister, Jeanette. When Glenn Seaborg was a boy, the family moved to the Seaborg Home in a subdivision called Home Gardens, that was later annexed to the City of South Gate, California
, a suburb of Los Angeles
.
He kept a daily journal from 1927 until he suffered a stroke in 1998. As a youth, Seaborg was both a devoted sports fan and an avid movie buff. His mother encouraged him to become a book-keeper as she felt his literary interests were impractical. He did not take an interest in science until his junior year when he was inspired by Dwight Logan Reid, a chemistry and physics teacher at David Starr Jordan High School in Watts
.
He graduated from Jordan in 1929 at the top of his class and received a bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles
in 1933. While at UCLA, he was invited by his German professor to meet Albert Einstein
, an experience that had a profound impact on Seaborg and served as a model of graciousness for his encounters with aspiring students in later years. Seaborg worked his way through school as a stevedore
(longshoreman), fruit packer and laboratory assistant.
in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley
, in 1937 with a doctoral thesis on the inelastic scattering of neutrons in which he coined the term "nuclear spallation
". He was a member of the professional chemistry fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma
. As a graduate student in the 1930s Seaborg performed wet chemistry
research for his advisor Gilbert Newton Lewis and published three papers with him on the theory of acids and bases. Seaborg then studied thoroughly the text Applied Radiochemistry
by Otto Hahn
, of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry
in Berlin and it had a major impact on his developing interests as a research scientist. For several years, Seaborg conducted important research in artificial radioactivity using the Lawrence cyclotron
at UC Berkeley. He was excited to learn from others that nuclear fission
was possible—but also chagrined, as his own research might have led him to the same discovery.
Seaborg also became expert in dealing with noted Berkeley physicist
Robert Oppenheimer
. Oppenheimer had a daunting reputation, and often answered a junior man's question before it had even been stated. Often the question answered was more profound than the one asked, but of little practical help. Seaborg learned to state his questions to Oppenheimer quickly and succinctly.
for post-doctoral research. He followed Frederick Soddy
's work investigating isotope
s and contributed to the discovery of more than 100 isotopes of elements. Using one of Lawrence's advanced cyclotrons, John Livingood, Fred Fairbrother, and Seaborg created a new isotope of iron
, iron-59 (Fe-59) in 1937. Iron-59 was useful in the studies of the hemoglobin
in human blood
. In 1938, Livingood and Seaborg collaborated (as they did for five years) to create an important isotope of iodine
, iodine-131 (I-131) which is still used to treat thyroid disease. (Many years later, it was credited with prolonging the life of Seaborg's mother.) As a result of these and other contributions, Seaborg is regarded as a pioneer in nuclear medicine and is one of its most prolific discoverers of isotopes.
In 1939 he became an instructor in chemistry
at Berkeley, was promoted to assistant professor in 1941 and professor in 1945.
UC Berkeley physicist Edwin McMillan
had led a team that discovered element 93, neptunium
in 1940. In November 1940, McMillan was persuaded to leave Berkeley temporarily to assist with urgent research in radar technology. Since Seaborg and his colleagues had perfected McMillan's oxidation-reduction technique for isolating neptunium, he asked McMillan for permission to continue the research and search for element 94. McMillan agreed to the collaboration. Seaborg first reported alpha decay proportionate to only a fraction of the element 93 under observation. The first hypothesis for this alpha particle accumulation was contamination by uranium, which produces alpha-decay particles; analysis of alpha-decay particles ruled this out. Seaborg then postulated that a distinct alpha-producing element was being formed from element 93. In February 1941, Seaborg and his collaborators produced plutonium-239 through the bombardment of uranium. This experimental achievement changed the course of human history in ways more profound than they could have ever imagined: the production of plutonium-239 was successful. In their experiments bombarding uranium with deuterons, they observed the creation of neptunium, element 93. But it then underwent beta-decay, forming a new element, plutonium, with 94 protons. Plutonium is fairly stable, but undergoes alpha-decay, which explained the presence of alpha particles coming from neptunium. Thus, on March 28, 1941, Dr. Seaborg, physicist Emilio Segrè and Berkeley chemist Joseph W. Kennedy
were able to show that plutonium (then known only as element 94239) underwent fission with slow neutrons, an important distinction that was crucial to the decisions made in directing Manhattan Project research. Room 307 of Gilman Hall
on the campus at the University of California, Berkeley
, where Seaborg did his work, has since been declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark
.
In addition to plutonium, he is credited as a lead discoverer of americium, curium, and berkelium, and as a co-discoverer of californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium and seaborgium. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
in 1951 with Edwin McMillan
for "their discoveries in the chemistry of the first transuranium elements." He obtained patents on americium and curium, which were developed in 1944 in Chicago at the wartime metallurgical laboratory during the Manhattan project. His research contributions to all of the other elements were conducted at the University of California, Berkeley
.
of the Manhattan Project
at the University of Chicago
, where Enrico Fermi
and his group would later convert U238 to plutonium
in the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction
using a chain-reacting pile. Seaborg's role was to figure out how to extract the tiny bit of plutonium from the mass of uranium
. Plutonium-239 was isolated in visible amounts using a transmutation reaction on August 20, 1942 and weighed on September 10, 1942 in Seaborg's Chicago laboratory. He was responsible for the multi-stage chemical process that separated, concentrated and isolated plutonium. This process was further developed at the Clinton Engineering Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
and then entered full-scale production at the Hanford Engineer Works, in Richland, Washington
.
Seaborg's theoretical development of the actinide concept
resulted in a redrawing of the Periodic Table of the Elements into its current configuration with the actinide series appearing below the lanthanide series. Seaborg developed the chemical elements americium
and curium
while in Chicago. He managed to secure patents for both elements. His patent on curium never proved commercially viable because of the element's short half-life. Americium is commonly used in household smoke detectors, however, and thus provided a good source of royalty income to Seaborg in later years. Prior to the test of the first nuclear weapon, Seaborg joined with several other leading scientists in a written statement known as the Franck Report
(secret at the time but since published) calling on President Truman to conduct a public demonstration of the atomic bomb witnessed by the Japanese rather than engaging in a surprise attack. Truman instead proceeded to drop two bombs, credited by most observers at the time with ending the war, a uranium bomb on Hiroshima
and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.
and others). Seaborg was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
in 1948. From 1954 to 1961 he served as associate director of the radiation laboratory. He was appointed by President Truman to serve as a member of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission
, an assignment he retained until 1960.
Seaborg served as chancellor
at University of California, Berkeley
from 1958 to 1961. His term as Chancellor came at a time of considerable controversy during the time of the free speech movement. In October 1958, he announced that the University had relaxed its prior prohibitions on political activity on a test basis. Seaborg served on the Faculty Athletic Committee for several years and is the co-author of a book concerning the Pacific Coast Conference
scandal and the founding of the Pac-10 (formerly Pac-8), in which he played a role. Seaborg served on the President's Science Advisory Commission during the Eisenhower administration, which produced the report "Scientific Progress, the Universities, and the Federal Government," also known as the "Seaborg Report," in November 1960. The Seaborg Report is credited with influencing the federal policy towards academic science for the next eight years. In 1959, he helped found the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory
with UC president Clark Kerr
.
and confirmation by the United States Senate
, Seaborg was chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC) from 1961 to 1971. His pending appointment by President Kennedy was nearly derailed in late 1960 when members of the Kennedy transition team learned that Seaborg had been listed in a U.S. News and World Report article as a member of "Nixon's Brain Trust." Seaborg said that as a lifetime Democrat he was baffled when the article appeared associating him with Vice President Nixon, whom he considered a casual acquaintance.
While chairman of the AEC, Seaborg participated on the negotiating team for the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT). Seaborg considered his contributions to the achievement of the LTBT as his greatest accomplishment. Despite strict rules from the Soviets about photography at the signing ceremony, Seaborg sneaked a tiny camera past the Soviet guards to take a close-up photograph of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
as he signed the treaty.
Seaborg was ardent supporter of large scale massive nuclear plants for electricity generation despite concerns by industry insiders that such large plants were vulnerable in that their nuclear cores could not be properly contained in the event of an accident or operating emergency. Seaborg received a letter dated August 16, 1966 from industry engineers expressing these concerns at the time of the licensing of New York's Indian Point reactor. This letter advised Seaborg and other AEC senior members of these containment concerns which would later become known as the "China Syndrome" resulting from uncontained core meltdowns. Seaborg directed this letter not be released to the public as he feared it would be misunderstood and therefore damage the nuclear industry in the public's view even though the law required such letters be released for public disclosure. This disclosure first came to light for public view in the BBC documentary series, "Pandora's Box, A Is For Atom" dealing with the early history of commercial nuclear development.
Seaborg enjoyed a close relationship with President Lyndon Johnson
and influenced the administration to pursue the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
.
Seaborg was called to the White House in the first week of the Nixon Administration in January 1969 to advise President Richard Nixon
on his first diplomatic crisis involving the Soviets and nuclear testing. Seaborg clashed with Nixon presidential adviser John Ehrlichman
over the treatment of a Jewish scientist whom the Nixon administration suspected of leaking nuclear secrets to Israel.
Seaborg published several books and journal articles during his tenure at the Atomic Energy Commission. His predictions concerning development of stable super-heavy elements are considered among his most important theoretical contributions. Seaborg theorized the transactinide series and the superactinide series of undiscovered synthetic elements. While most of these theoretical future elements have extremely short half-lives and thus no expected practical applications, Seaborg theorized an island of stability
for isotopes of certain elements.
When Seaborg resigned as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1971, he had served longer than any other Kennedy appointee.
Following his service as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Seaborg returned to UC Berkeley where he was awarded the position of University Professor. At the time, there had been fewer University Professors at UC Berkeley than Nobel prize winners. He also served as Chairman of the Lawrence Hall of Science. Seaborg served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
in 1972 and as President of the American Chemical Society
in 1976. In 1976, when the Swedish king visited the United States, Seaborg played a major role in welcoming the Swedish Royal Family
.
In 1980, he transmuted
several thousand atoms of bismuth
into gold
at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. His experimental technique, using nuclear physics
, was able to remove protons and neutrons from the bismuth atoms. Seaborg's technique would have been far too expensive to enable routine manufacturing of gold, but his work is the closest to the mythical Philosopher's Stone
.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan
appointed Seaborg to serve on the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Upon seeing the final draft report, Seaborg is credited with making comments that it was far too weak and did not communicate the urgency of the current crisis. He compared the crisis in education to the arms race
, and stated that we are "a nation at risk." These comments led to a new introduction to the report and gave the report the famous title which focused national attention on education as an issue germane to the federal government.
Seaborg lived most of his later life in Lafayette, California
, where he devoted himself to editing and publishing the journals that documented both his early life and later career. He rallied a group of scientists who criticized the science curriculum in the State of California which he viewed as far too socially oriented and not nearly focused enough on hard science. California Governor Pete Wilson appointed Seaborg to head a committee that proposed sweeping changes to California's science curriculum despite outcries from labor organizations and others.
On August 24, 1998, while in Boston to attend a meeting by the American Chemical Society
, Seaborg suffered a stroke
, which led to his death six months later on February 25, 1999 at his home in Lafayette.
During his lifetime, Seaborg is said to have been the author or co-author of more than 50 books and 500 scientific journal articles, many of them brief reports on fast-breaking discoveries in nuclear science while other subjects, most notably the actinide concept, represented major theoretical contributions in the history of science
. He held more than 40 patents — among them the only patents ever issued for chemical elements, americium
and curium
. He is also said to have received more than 50 degrees and honorary degrees in his lifetime. At one time, he was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the longest entry in Marquis Who's Who
in America. In February 2005, Seaborg was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
.
, the secretary of Ernest Lawrence
.
Under wartime pressure, Seaborg had moved to Chicago while engaged to Griggs. When Seaborg returned to accompany Griggs for the journey back to Chicago, friends expected them to marry in Chicago. But, eager to be married, Seaborg and Griggs impulsively got off the train in the town of Caliente, Nevada
for what they thought would be a quick wedding. When they asked for City Hall, they found Caliente had none—they would have to travel north to Pioche
, the county seat
. With no car, this was no easy feat but, happily, one of Caliente's newest deputy sheriffs turned out to be a recent graduate of the Cal Berkeley chemistry department and was more than happy to do a favor for Seaborg. The deputy sheriff arranged for the wedding couple to ride up and back to Pioche in a mail truck. The witnesses at the Seaborg wedding were a clerk and a janitor.
Glenn Seaborg and Helen Griggs Seaborg had six children, of whom the first, Peter Glenn Seaborg, died in 1997. The others were Lynne Seaborg Cobb, David Seaborg
, Steve Seaborg, Eric Seaborg, and Dianne Seaborg.
Seaborg was an avid hiker. Upon becoming Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1961, he commenced taking daily hikes through a trail which he blazed at the headquarters site in Germantown, Maryland. He frequently invited colleagues and visitors to accompany him and the trail became known as the "Glenn Seaborg Trail."
He and his wife Helen are credited with blazing a trail in the East Bay area near their Lafayette, California home. This trail has since become a part of the American Hiking Association's cross-country network of trails. Seaborg and his wife walked the trail network from Contra Costa County all the way to the California-Nevada border.
Seaborg was honored as Swedish-American of the Year in 1962 by the Vasa Order of America. In 1991, the organization named "Local Lodge Glenn T. Seaborg No. 719" in his honor during the Seaborg Honors ceremony at which he appeared. This lodge maintains a scholarship fund in his name, as does the unrelated Swedish-American Club of Los Angeles.
Seaborg kept a close bond to his Swedish origin. He visited Sweden every so often and his family were members of the Swedish Pemer Genealogical Society, a family association open for every descendant of the Pemer family, a Swedish family with German origin, from which Seaborg was descended on his mother's side.
He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
in 1972 and the Royal Society
of London.
Seaborg was an enthusiastic supporter of Cal's
sports teams. San Francisco columnist Herb Caen
was fond of pointing out that Seaborg's surname is an anagram of "Go Bears", a popular cheer at UC Berkeley.
was named after Seaborg by Albert Ghiorso, E. Kenneth Hulet, and others, who also credited Seaborg as a co-discoverer. It was so named while Seaborg was still alive, which proved controversial
. He influenced the naming of so many elements that with the announcement of seaborgium, it was noted in Discover magazine's review of the year in science that he could receive a letter addressed in chemical elements: seaborgium, lawrencium
(for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where he worked), berkelium
, californium
, americium
.
While it has been commonly stated that seaborgium is the only element to have been named after a living person, this is not entirely accurate; both einsteinium
and fermium
were proposed as names of new elements discovered by Albert Ghiorso
while Enrico Fermi
and Albert Einstein
were still living. The discovery of these elements and their names were kept secret under Cold War
era nuclear secrecy rules, however, and thus the names were not known by the public or the broader scientific community until after the deaths of Fermi and Einstein. Thus seaborgium is the only element to have been publicly named after a living person.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
for "discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranium elements", contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, and developed the actinide concept
Actinide concept
The actinide concept in nuclear chemistry was first theorized by Glenn T. Seaborg in 1944, resulting in the extension of Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements by placing a new actinide series, for elements 89–103, below the lanthanide series...
, which led to the current arrangement of the actinoid series in the periodic table of the elements
Periodic table
The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...
. He spent most of his career as an educator and research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
where he became the second Chancellor in its history and served as a University Professor. Seaborg advised ten presidents from Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
to Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
on nuclear policy and was the chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
from 1961 to 1971 where he pushed for commercial nuclear energy
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
and peaceful applications of nuclear science. Throughout his career, Seaborg worked for arms control. He was signator to the Franck Report
Franck Report
The Franck Report of June 1945 was a document signed by several prominent nuclear physicists recommending that the United States not use the atomic bomb as a weapon to prompt the surrender of Japan in World War II....
and contributed to the achievement of the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to...
, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996 but it has not entered into force.-Status:...
. Seaborg was a well-known advocate of science education and federal funding for pure research. He was a key contributor to the report "A Nation at Risk
A Nation at Risk
A Nation at Risk: The Imperative For Educational Reform is the title of the 1983 report of American President Ronald Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education. Its publication is considered a landmark event in modern American educational history...
" as a member of President Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education
National Commission on Excellence in Education
The National Commission on Excellence in Education produced the 1983 report titled A Nation at Risk. It was chaired by David P. Gardner and included prominent members such as Nobel prize-winning chemist Glenn T. Seaborg....
and was the principal author of the Seaborg Report on academic science issued in the closing days of the Eisenhower administration.
Seaborg was the principal or co-discoverer of ten elements: plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
, americium
Americium
Americium is a synthetic element that has the symbol Am and atomic number 95. This transuranic element of the actinide series is located in the periodic table below the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was named after another continent, America.Americium was first produced in 1944...
, curium
Curium
Curium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Cm and atomic number 96. This radioactive transuranic element of the actinide series was named after Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie. Curium was first intentionally produced and identified in summer 1944 by the group of...
, berkelium
Berkelium
Berkelium , is a synthetic element with the symbol Bk and atomic number 97, a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the University of California Radiation Laboratory where it was discovered in December 1949...
, californium
Californium
Californium is a radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Cf and atomic number 98. The element was first made in the laboratory in 1950 by bombarding curium with alpha particles at the University of California, Berkeley. It is the ninth member of the actinide series and was the...
, einsteinium
Einsteinium
Einsteinium is a synthetic element with the symbol Es and atomic number 99. It is the seventh transuranic element, and an actinide.Einsteinium was discovered in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb explosion in 1952, and named after Albert Einstein...
, fermium
Fermium
Fermium is a synthetic element with the symbol Fm. It is the 100th element in the periodic table and a member of the actinide series. It is the heaviest element that can be formed by neutron bombardment of lighter elements, and hence the last element that can be prepared in macroscopic quantities,...
, mendelevium
Mendelevium
Mendelevium is a synthetic element with the symbol Md and the atomic number 101. A metallic radioactive transuranic element in the actinide series, mendelevium is usually synthesized by bombarding einsteinium with alpha particles. It was named after Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, who created the...
, nobelium
Nobelium
Nobelium is a synthetic element with the symbol No and atomic number 102. It was first correctly identified in 1966 by scientists at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions in Dubna, Soviet Union...
and element 106, which was named seaborgium
Seaborgium
Seaborgium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Sg and atomic number 106.Seaborgium is a synthetic element whose most stable isotope 271Sg has a half-life of 1.9 minutes. A new isotope 269Sg has a potentially slightly longer half-life based on the observation of a single decay...
in his honor while he was still living. He also developed more than 100 atomic isotopes, and is credited with important contributions to the chemistry of plutonium, originally as part of the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
where he developed the extraction process used to isolate the plutonium fuel for the second atomic bomb
Fat Man
"Fat Man" is the codename for the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States on August 9, 1945. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons to be used in warfare to date , and its detonation caused the third man-made nuclear explosion. The name also refers more...
. Early in his career, Seaborg was a pioneer in nuclear medicine and developed numerous isotopes of elements with important applications in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, most notably iodine-131, which is used in the treatment of thyroid disease. In addition to his theoretical work in the development of the actinide concept which placed the actinide series beneath the lanthanide series on the periodic table, Seaborg proposed the placement of super-heavy elements in the transactinide and superactinide series. After sharing the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Edwin McMillan
Edwin McMillan
Edwin Mattison McMillan was an American physicist and Nobel laureate credited with being the first ever to produce a transuranium element. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Seaborg in 1951....
, he received approximately 50 honorary doctorates and numerous other awards and honors. The list of things named after Seaborg ranges from his atomic element to an asteroid. Seaborg was a prolific author, penning more than 50 books and 500 journal articles, often in collaboration with others. He received so many awards and honors that he was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person with the longest entry in Who's Who in America.
Biography
Of Swedish, distant German and BelgianBelgians
Belgians are people originating from the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe.-Etymology:Belgians are a relatively "new" people...
(Flemish
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
and Walloon
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
) ancestry, Seaborg was born in Ishpeming, Michigan
Ishpeming, Michigan
Ishpeming is a city in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,686 at the 2000 census. This is down from a higher population in the 1950s and 1960s when the economically supportive iron ore mines had a much higher employment level...
, the son of Herman Theodore (Ted) and Selma Olivia Erickson Seaborg. He had one sister, Jeanette. When Glenn Seaborg was a boy, the family moved to the Seaborg Home in a subdivision called Home Gardens, that was later annexed to the City of South Gate, California
South Gate, California
South Gate is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The sixteenth largest city in Los Angeles County, it encompasses . South Gate is located just southeast of downtown Los Angeles It is part of the Gateway Cities region of southeastern Los Angeles County...
, a suburb of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
He kept a daily journal from 1927 until he suffered a stroke in 1998. As a youth, Seaborg was both a devoted sports fan and an avid movie buff. His mother encouraged him to become a book-keeper as she felt his literary interests were impractical. He did not take an interest in science until his junior year when he was inspired by Dwight Logan Reid, a chemistry and physics teacher at David Starr Jordan High School in Watts
Watts, Los Angeles, California
Watts is a mostly residential neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California.-History:The area now known as Watts is located on the Rancho La Tajauta Mexican land grant...
.
He graduated from Jordan in 1929 at the top of his class and received a bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
in 1933. While at UCLA, he was invited by his German professor to meet Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, an experience that had a profound impact on Seaborg and served as a model of graciousness for his encounters with aspiring students in later years. Seaborg worked his way through school as a stevedore
Stevedore
Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....
(longshoreman), fruit packer and laboratory assistant.
Graduate work
Seaborg took his Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, in 1937 with a doctoral thesis on the inelastic scattering of neutrons in which he coined the term "nuclear spallation
Spallation
In general, spallation is a process in which fragments of material are ejected from a body due to impact or stress. In the context of impact mechanics it describes ejection or vaporization of material from a target during impact by a projectile...
". He was a member of the professional chemistry fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma
Alpha Chi Sigma
Alpha Chi Sigma is a professional fraternity specializing in the field of chemistry. It has both collegiate and professional chapters throughout the United States consisting of both men and women and numbering more than 63,400 members...
. As a graduate student in the 1930s Seaborg performed wet chemistry
Wet chemistry
Wet chemistry is a term used to refer to chemistry generally done in the liquid phase. It is also known as bench chemistry because many of the tests performed are done at a lab bench.-Materials:...
research for his advisor Gilbert Newton Lewis and published three papers with him on the theory of acids and bases. Seaborg then studied thoroughly the text Applied Radiochemistry
Applied Radiochemistry
Applied radiochemistry was an important collection of lectures by German chemist Otto Hahn published in English in 1936 by the Cornell University Press and simultaneously by the Oxford University Press . Edited by H. Milford, and spanning 278 pages, the volume presents the content of a group of...
by Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn FRS was a German chemist and Nobel laureate, a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is regarded as "the father of nuclear chemistry". Hahn was a courageous opposer of Jewish persecution by the Nazis and after World War II he became a passionate campaigner...
, of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
The Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science was a German scientific institution established in 1911. It was implicated in Nazi science, and after the Second World War was wound up and its functions replaced by the Max Planck Society...
in Berlin and it had a major impact on his developing interests as a research scientist. For several years, Seaborg conducted important research in artificial radioactivity using the Lawrence cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...
at UC Berkeley. He was excited to learn from others that nuclear fission
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
was possible—but also chagrined, as his own research might have led him to the same discovery.
Seaborg also became expert in dealing with noted Berkeley physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Oppenheimer
Julius Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Enrico Fermi, he is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II project that developed the first...
. Oppenheimer had a daunting reputation, and often answered a junior man's question before it had even been stated. Often the question answered was more profound than the one asked, but of little practical help. Seaborg learned to state his questions to Oppenheimer quickly and succinctly.
Pioneering work in nuclear chemistry
Seaborg remained at the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
for post-doctoral research. He followed Frederick Soddy
Frederick Soddy
Frederick Soddy was an English radiochemist who explained, with Ernest Rutherford, that radioactivity is due to the transmutation of elements, now known to involve nuclear reactions. He also proved the existence of isotopes of certain radioactive elements...
's work investigating isotope
Isotope
Isotopes are variants of atoms of a particular chemical element, which have differing numbers of neutrons. Atoms of a particular element by definition must contain the same number of protons but may have a distinct number of neutrons which differs from atom to atom, without changing the designation...
s and contributed to the discovery of more than 100 isotopes of elements. Using one of Lawrence's advanced cyclotrons, John Livingood, Fred Fairbrother, and Seaborg created a new isotope of iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, iron-59 (Fe-59) in 1937. Iron-59 was useful in the studies of the hemoglobin
Hemoglobin
Hemoglobin is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of all vertebrates, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae, as well as the tissues of some invertebrates...
in human blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
. In 1938, Livingood and Seaborg collaborated (as they did for five years) to create an important isotope of iodine
Iodine
Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The name is pronounced , , or . The name is from the , meaning violet or purple, due to the color of elemental iodine vapor....
, iodine-131 (I-131) which is still used to treat thyroid disease. (Many years later, it was credited with prolonging the life of Seaborg's mother.) As a result of these and other contributions, Seaborg is regarded as a pioneer in nuclear medicine and is one of its most prolific discoverers of isotopes.
In 1939 he became an instructor in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
at Berkeley, was promoted to assistant professor in 1941 and professor in 1945.
UC Berkeley physicist Edwin McMillan
Edwin McMillan
Edwin Mattison McMillan was an American physicist and Nobel laureate credited with being the first ever to produce a transuranium element. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Seaborg in 1951....
had led a team that discovered element 93, neptunium
Neptunium
Neptunium is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope, 237Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production and it can be used as a...
in 1940. In November 1940, McMillan was persuaded to leave Berkeley temporarily to assist with urgent research in radar technology. Since Seaborg and his colleagues had perfected McMillan's oxidation-reduction technique for isolating neptunium, he asked McMillan for permission to continue the research and search for element 94. McMillan agreed to the collaboration. Seaborg first reported alpha decay proportionate to only a fraction of the element 93 under observation. The first hypothesis for this alpha particle accumulation was contamination by uranium, which produces alpha-decay particles; analysis of alpha-decay particles ruled this out. Seaborg then postulated that a distinct alpha-producing element was being formed from element 93. In February 1941, Seaborg and his collaborators produced plutonium-239 through the bombardment of uranium. This experimental achievement changed the course of human history in ways more profound than they could have ever imagined: the production of plutonium-239 was successful. In their experiments bombarding uranium with deuterons, they observed the creation of neptunium, element 93. But it then underwent beta-decay, forming a new element, plutonium, with 94 protons. Plutonium is fairly stable, but undergoes alpha-decay, which explained the presence of alpha particles coming from neptunium. Thus, on March 28, 1941, Dr. Seaborg, physicist Emilio Segrè and Berkeley chemist Joseph W. Kennedy
Joseph W. Kennedy
Joseph William Kennedy was an American scientist credited with being a co-discoverer of plutonium along with Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin McMillan, and Arthur Wahl....
were able to show that plutonium (then known only as element 94239) underwent fission with slow neutrons, an important distinction that was crucial to the decisions made in directing Manhattan Project research. Room 307 of Gilman Hall
Gilman Hall
Gilman Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Room 307 was where Glenn T. Seaborg and his coworkers identified plutonium as a new element on February 23, 1941 and as such, is designated a National Historic Landmark...
on the campus at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where Seaborg did his work, has since been declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
.
In addition to plutonium, he is credited as a lead discoverer of americium, curium, and berkelium, and as a co-discoverer of californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium and seaborgium. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
in 1951 with Edwin McMillan
Edwin McMillan
Edwin Mattison McMillan was an American physicist and Nobel laureate credited with being the first ever to produce a transuranium element. He shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Seaborg in 1951....
for "their discoveries in the chemistry of the first transuranium elements." He obtained patents on americium and curium, which were developed in 1944 in Chicago at the wartime metallurgical laboratory during the Manhattan project. His research contributions to all of the other elements were conducted at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
Scientific contributions during the Manhattan Project
On April 19, 1942, Seaborg reached Chicago, and joined the chemistry group at the Metallurgical LaboratoryMetallurgical Laboratory
The Metallurgical Laboratory or "Met Lab" at the University of Chicago was part of the World War II–era Manhattan Project, created by the United States to develop an atomic bomb...
of the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
and his group would later convert U238 to plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
in the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction
Nuclear chain reaction
A nuclear chain reaction occurs when one nuclear reaction causes an average of one or more nuclear reactions, thus leading to a self-propagating number of these reactions. The specific nuclear reaction may be the fission of heavy isotopes or the fusion of light isotopes...
using a chain-reacting pile. Seaborg's role was to figure out how to extract the tiny bit of plutonium from the mass of uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
. Plutonium-239 was isolated in visible amounts using a transmutation reaction on August 20, 1942 and weighed on September 10, 1942 in Seaborg's Chicago laboratory. He was responsible for the multi-stage chemical process that separated, concentrated and isolated plutonium. This process was further developed at the Clinton Engineering Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 27,387 at the 2000 census...
and then entered full-scale production at the Hanford Engineer Works, in Richland, Washington
Richland, Washington
Richland is a city in Benton County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, at the confluence of the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 48,058. April 1, 2011 estimates from the Washington State Office of Financial Management put the...
.
Seaborg's theoretical development of the actinide concept
Actinide concept
The actinide concept in nuclear chemistry was first theorized by Glenn T. Seaborg in 1944, resulting in the extension of Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements by placing a new actinide series, for elements 89–103, below the lanthanide series...
resulted in a redrawing of the Periodic Table of the Elements into its current configuration with the actinide series appearing below the lanthanide series. Seaborg developed the chemical elements americium
Americium
Americium is a synthetic element that has the symbol Am and atomic number 95. This transuranic element of the actinide series is located in the periodic table below the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was named after another continent, America.Americium was first produced in 1944...
and curium
Curium
Curium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Cm and atomic number 96. This radioactive transuranic element of the actinide series was named after Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie. Curium was first intentionally produced and identified in summer 1944 by the group of...
while in Chicago. He managed to secure patents for both elements. His patent on curium never proved commercially viable because of the element's short half-life. Americium is commonly used in household smoke detectors, however, and thus provided a good source of royalty income to Seaborg in later years. Prior to the test of the first nuclear weapon, Seaborg joined with several other leading scientists in a written statement known as the Franck Report
Franck Report
The Franck Report of June 1945 was a document signed by several prominent nuclear physicists recommending that the United States not use the atomic bomb as a weapon to prompt the surrender of Japan in World War II....
(secret at the time but since published) calling on President Truman to conduct a public demonstration of the atomic bomb witnessed by the Japanese rather than engaging in a surprise attack. Truman instead proceeded to drop two bombs, credited by most observers at the time with ending the war, a uranium bomb on Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.
Professor and Chancellor at the University of California, Berkeley
After the conclusion of World War II and the Manhattan Project, Seaborg was eager to return to academic life and university research free from the restrictions of wartime secrecy. In 1946, he added to his responsibilities as a professor by heading the nuclear chemistry research at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory operated by the University of California on behalf of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Seaborg was named one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Men in America" by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1947 (along with Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and others). Seaborg was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
in 1948. From 1954 to 1961 he served as associate director of the radiation laboratory. He was appointed by President Truman to serve as a member of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
, an assignment he retained until 1960.
Seaborg served as chancellor
Chancellor (education)
A chancellor or vice-chancellor is the chief executive of a university. Other titles are sometimes used, such as president or rector....
at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
from 1958 to 1961. His term as Chancellor came at a time of considerable controversy during the time of the free speech movement. In October 1958, he announced that the University had relaxed its prior prohibitions on political activity on a test basis. Seaborg served on the Faculty Athletic Committee for several years and is the co-author of a book concerning the Pacific Coast Conference
Pacific Coast Conference
The Pacific Coast Conference was a college athletic conference in the United States which existed from 1915 to 1959. Though the Pacific-12 Conference claims the PCC's history as part of its own, the older league had a completely different charter and was disbanded in 1959 due to a major crisis...
scandal and the founding of the Pac-10 (formerly Pac-8), in which he played a role. Seaborg served on the President's Science Advisory Commission during the Eisenhower administration, which produced the report "Scientific Progress, the Universities, and the Federal Government," also known as the "Seaborg Report," in November 1960. The Seaborg Report is credited with influencing the federal policy towards academic science for the next eight years. In 1959, he helped found the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory
Space Sciences Laboratory
The Space Sciences Laboratory is an Organized Research Unit of the University of California, Berkeley. It is located in the Berkeley Hills above the university campus...
with UC president Clark Kerr
Clark Kerr
Clark Kerr was an American professor of economics and academic administrator. He was the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley and twelfth president of the University of California.- Early years :...
.
Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission
After appointment by President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and confirmation by the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
, Seaborg was chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
(AEC) from 1961 to 1971. His pending appointment by President Kennedy was nearly derailed in late 1960 when members of the Kennedy transition team learned that Seaborg had been listed in a U.S. News and World Report article as a member of "Nixon's Brain Trust." Seaborg said that as a lifetime Democrat he was baffled when the article appeared associating him with Vice President Nixon, whom he considered a casual acquaintance.
While chairman of the AEC, Seaborg participated on the negotiating team for the Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT). Seaborg considered his contributions to the achievement of the LTBT as his greatest accomplishment. Despite strict rules from the Soviets about photography at the signing ceremony, Seaborg sneaked a tiny camera past the Soviet guards to take a close-up photograph of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
as he signed the treaty.
Seaborg was ardent supporter of large scale massive nuclear plants for electricity generation despite concerns by industry insiders that such large plants were vulnerable in that their nuclear cores could not be properly contained in the event of an accident or operating emergency. Seaborg received a letter dated August 16, 1966 from industry engineers expressing these concerns at the time of the licensing of New York's Indian Point reactor. This letter advised Seaborg and other AEC senior members of these containment concerns which would later become known as the "China Syndrome" resulting from uncontained core meltdowns. Seaborg directed this letter not be released to the public as he feared it would be misunderstood and therefore damage the nuclear industry in the public's view even though the law required such letters be released for public disclosure. This disclosure first came to light for public view in the BBC documentary series, "Pandora's Box, A Is For Atom" dealing with the early history of commercial nuclear development.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and influenced the administration to pursue the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to...
.
Seaborg was called to the White House in the first week of the Nixon Administration in January 1969 to advise President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
on his first diplomatic crisis involving the Soviets and nuclear testing. Seaborg clashed with Nixon presidential adviser John Ehrlichman
John Ehrlichman
John Daniel Ehrlichman was counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon. He was a key figure in events leading to the Watergate first break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal, for which he was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury...
over the treatment of a Jewish scientist whom the Nixon administration suspected of leaking nuclear secrets to Israel.
Seaborg published several books and journal articles during his tenure at the Atomic Energy Commission. His predictions concerning development of stable super-heavy elements are considered among his most important theoretical contributions. Seaborg theorized the transactinide series and the superactinide series of undiscovered synthetic elements. While most of these theoretical future elements have extremely short half-lives and thus no expected practical applications, Seaborg theorized an island of stability
Island of stability
The island of stability in nuclear physics describes a set of as-yet undiscovered isotopes of transuranium elements which are theorized to be much more stable than others...
for isotopes of certain elements.
When Seaborg resigned as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1971, he had served longer than any other Kennedy appointee.
Return to California
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
in 1972 and as President of the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
in 1976. In 1976, when the Swedish king visited the United States, Seaborg played a major role in welcoming the Swedish Royal Family
Swedish Royal Family
The Swedish Royal Family since 1818 consists of a number of persons in the Swedish Royal House of Bernadotte, closely related to the King of Sweden. They are entitled to royal titles and style , and some perform official engagements and ceremonial duties of state...
.
In 1980, he transmuted
Nuclear transmutation
Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one chemical element or isotope into another. In other words, atoms of one element can be changed into atoms of other element by 'transmutation'...
several thousand atoms of bismuth
Bismuth
Bismuth is a chemical element with symbol Bi and atomic number 83. Bismuth, a trivalent poor metal, chemically resembles arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth may occur naturally uncombined, although its sulfide and oxide form important commercial ores. The free element is 86% as dense as lead...
into gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. His experimental technique, using nuclear physics
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
, was able to remove protons and neutrons from the bismuth atoms. Seaborg's technique would have been far too expensive to enable routine manufacturing of gold, but his work is the closest to the mythical Philosopher's Stone
Philosopher's stone
The philosopher's stone is a legendary alchemical substance said to be capable of turning base metals into gold or silver. It was also sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal...
.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
appointed Seaborg to serve on the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Upon seeing the final draft report, Seaborg is credited with making comments that it was far too weak and did not communicate the urgency of the current crisis. He compared the crisis in education to the arms race
Arms race
The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation...
, and stated that we are "a nation at risk." These comments led to a new introduction to the report and gave the report the famous title which focused national attention on education as an issue germane to the federal government.
Seaborg lived most of his later life in Lafayette, California
Lafayette, California
Lafayette is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 23,893. It was named after the Marquis de Lafayette, a French military hero of the American Revolutionary War...
, where he devoted himself to editing and publishing the journals that documented both his early life and later career. He rallied a group of scientists who criticized the science curriculum in the State of California which he viewed as far too socially oriented and not nearly focused enough on hard science. California Governor Pete Wilson appointed Seaborg to head a committee that proposed sweeping changes to California's science curriculum despite outcries from labor organizations and others.
On August 24, 1998, while in Boston to attend a meeting by the American Chemical Society
American Chemical Society
The American Chemical Society is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 161,000 members at all degree-levels and in all fields of chemistry, chemical...
, Seaborg suffered a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, which led to his death six months later on February 25, 1999 at his home in Lafayette.
During his lifetime, Seaborg is said to have been the author or co-author of more than 50 books and 500 scientific journal articles, many of them brief reports on fast-breaking discoveries in nuclear science while other subjects, most notably the actinide concept, represented major theoretical contributions in the history of science
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
. He held more than 40 patents — among them the only patents ever issued for chemical elements, americium
Americium
Americium is a synthetic element that has the symbol Am and atomic number 95. This transuranic element of the actinide series is located in the periodic table below the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was named after another continent, America.Americium was first produced in 1944...
and curium
Curium
Curium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Cm and atomic number 96. This radioactive transuranic element of the actinide series was named after Marie Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie. Curium was first intentionally produced and identified in summer 1944 by the group of...
. He is also said to have received more than 50 degrees and honorary degrees in his lifetime. At one time, he was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the longest entry in Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who
Marquis Who's Who, a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc., is the American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies...
in America. In February 2005, Seaborg was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recognizing, honoring and encouraging invention and creativity through the administration of its programs. The Hall of Fame honors the men and women responsible for the great technological advances that make human,...
.
Personal life
In 1942, Seaborg married Helen GriggsHelen L. Seaborg
Helen L. Seaborg was an American child welfare advocate and the wife of Nobel Prize chemist Glenn T. Seaborg....
, the secretary of Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Lawrence
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his invention, utilization, and improvement of the cyclotron atom-smasher beginning in 1929, based on his studies of the works of Rolf Widerøe, and his later work in uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project...
.
Under wartime pressure, Seaborg had moved to Chicago while engaged to Griggs. When Seaborg returned to accompany Griggs for the journey back to Chicago, friends expected them to marry in Chicago. But, eager to be married, Seaborg and Griggs impulsively got off the train in the town of Caliente, Nevada
Caliente, Nevada
Caliente , formerly known as Culverwell and Calientes is a town in Lincoln County, Nevada, United States. Its elevation is 4,300 feet . The population was 1,123 at the 2000 census...
for what they thought would be a quick wedding. When they asked for City Hall, they found Caliente had none—they would have to travel north to Pioche
Pioche, Nevada
-External links:*...
, the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
. With no car, this was no easy feat but, happily, one of Caliente's newest deputy sheriffs turned out to be a recent graduate of the Cal Berkeley chemistry department and was more than happy to do a favor for Seaborg. The deputy sheriff arranged for the wedding couple to ride up and back to Pioche in a mail truck. The witnesses at the Seaborg wedding were a clerk and a janitor.
Glenn Seaborg and Helen Griggs Seaborg had six children, of whom the first, Peter Glenn Seaborg, died in 1997. The others were Lynne Seaborg Cobb, David Seaborg
David Seaborg
David Seaborg is an evolutionary biologist; as well as a peace activist, author and a leader in the environmental movement. He serves as director of the World Rainforest Fund, the Seaborg Open Space Fund, and the Greater Lafayette Open Space Fund .-Life:Seaborg is the son of Helen L...
, Steve Seaborg, Eric Seaborg, and Dianne Seaborg.
Seaborg was an avid hiker. Upon becoming Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1961, he commenced taking daily hikes through a trail which he blazed at the headquarters site in Germantown, Maryland. He frequently invited colleagues and visitors to accompany him and the trail became known as the "Glenn Seaborg Trail."
He and his wife Helen are credited with blazing a trail in the East Bay area near their Lafayette, California home. This trail has since become a part of the American Hiking Association's cross-country network of trails. Seaborg and his wife walked the trail network from Contra Costa County all the way to the California-Nevada border.
Seaborg was honored as Swedish-American of the Year in 1962 by the Vasa Order of America. In 1991, the organization named "Local Lodge Glenn T. Seaborg No. 719" in his honor during the Seaborg Honors ceremony at which he appeared. This lodge maintains a scholarship fund in his name, as does the unrelated Swedish-American Club of Los Angeles.
Seaborg kept a close bond to his Swedish origin. He visited Sweden every so often and his family were members of the Swedish Pemer Genealogical Society, a family association open for every descendant of the Pemer family, a Swedish family with German origin, from which Seaborg was descended on his mother's side.
He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
in 1972 and the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
of London.
Seaborg was an enthusiastic supporter of Cal's
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
sports teams. San Francisco columnist Herb Caen
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
was fond of pointing out that Seaborg's surname is an anagram of "Go Bears", a popular cheer at UC Berkeley.
Seaborgium
The element seaborgiumSeaborgium
Seaborgium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Sg and atomic number 106.Seaborgium is a synthetic element whose most stable isotope 271Sg has a half-life of 1.9 minutes. A new isotope 269Sg has a potentially slightly longer half-life based on the observation of a single decay...
was named after Seaborg by Albert Ghiorso, E. Kenneth Hulet, and others, who also credited Seaborg as a co-discoverer. It was so named while Seaborg was still alive, which proved controversial
Element naming controversy
The names for the chemical elements 104 to 106 were the subject of a major controversy starting in the 1960s, described by some nuclear chemists as the Transfermium Wars because it concerned the elements following fermium on the periodic table....
. He influenced the naming of so many elements that with the announcement of seaborgium, it was noted in Discover magazine's review of the year in science that he could receive a letter addressed in chemical elements: seaborgium, lawrencium
Lawrencium
Lawrencium is a radioactive synthetic chemical element with the symbol Lr and atomic number 103. In the periodic table of the elements, it is a period 7 d-block element and the last element of actinide series...
(for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where he worked), berkelium
Berkelium
Berkelium , is a synthetic element with the symbol Bk and atomic number 97, a member of the actinide and transuranium element series. It is named after the city of Berkeley, California, the location of the University of California Radiation Laboratory where it was discovered in December 1949...
, californium
Californium
Californium is a radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol Cf and atomic number 98. The element was first made in the laboratory in 1950 by bombarding curium with alpha particles at the University of California, Berkeley. It is the ninth member of the actinide series and was the...
, americium
Americium
Americium is a synthetic element that has the symbol Am and atomic number 95. This transuranic element of the actinide series is located in the periodic table below the lanthanide element europium, and thus by analogy was named after another continent, America.Americium was first produced in 1944...
.
While it has been commonly stated that seaborgium is the only element to have been named after a living person, this is not entirely accurate; both einsteinium
Einsteinium
Einsteinium is a synthetic element with the symbol Es and atomic number 99. It is the seventh transuranic element, and an actinide.Einsteinium was discovered in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb explosion in 1952, and named after Albert Einstein...
and fermium
Fermium
Fermium is a synthetic element with the symbol Fm. It is the 100th element in the periodic table and a member of the actinide series. It is the heaviest element that can be formed by neutron bombardment of lighter elements, and hence the last element that can be prepared in macroscopic quantities,...
were proposed as names of new elements discovered by Albert Ghiorso
Albert Ghiorso
Albert Ghiorso was an American nuclear scientist and co-discoverer of a record 12 chemical elements on the periodic table. His research career spanned five decades, from the early 1940s to the late 1990s.-Early life:...
while Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
and Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
were still living. The discovery of these elements and their names were kept secret under Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era nuclear secrecy rules, however, and thus the names were not known by the public or the broader scientific community until after the deaths of Fermi and Einstein. Thus seaborgium is the only element to have been publicly named after a living person.
Further reading
- Patrick Coffey, Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities and Rivalries That Made Modern Chemistry, Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-532134-0
External links
- Biography and Bibliographic Resources, from the Office of Scientific and Technical InformationOffice of Scientific and Technical InformationThe Office of Scientific and Technical Information is a component of the Office of Science within the U.S. Department of Energy...
, United States Department of EnergyUnited States Department of EnergyThe United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material... - National Academy of Sciences biography
- Annotated bibliography for Glenn Seaborg from the Alsos Digital Library
- Nobel Institute Official Biography
- UC Berkeley Biography of Chancellor Glenn T. Seaborg
- Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's Glenn T. Seaborg website
- American Association for the Advancement of Science, List of Presidents
- American Chemical Society, List of Presidents
- Seaborg and Plutonium Chemistry, at Department of Energy official site
- Glenn Seaborg Trail, at Department of Energy official site
- Glenn T. Seaborg Center at Northern Michigan University
- Glenn Seaborg Learning Consortium at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center
- Glenn T. Seaborg Medal and Symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles