Glenn T. Seaborg

It has been suggested that Glenn T. Seaborg bibliography be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2023.

Glenn T. Seaborg
Seaborg in 1964
Born	Glen Theodore Seaborg (1912-04-19)April 19, 1912 Ishpeming, Michigan, US
Died	February 25, 1999(1999-02-25) (aged 86) Lafayette, California, US
Education	University of California, Los Angeles (BA) University of California, Berkeley (PhD)
Known for	Contributions to the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements
Spouse	Helen L. Seaborg ​ (m. 1942)​
Children	7, including David
Awards	ACS Award in Pure Chemistry (1947) Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1948) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1951) Centenary Prize (1956) Perkin Medal (1957)[1] Enrico Fermi Award (1959) Franklin Medal (1963) Willard Gibbs Award (1966) Priestley Medal (1979) Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1985)[2] Vannevar Bush Award (1988) National Medal of Science (1991)
Scientific career
Fields	Nuclear chemistry
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley University of Chicago Manhattan Project US Atomic Energy Commission
Thesis	The interaction of fast neutrons with lead (1937)
Doctoral advisors	George Ernest Gibson Gilbert Newton Lewis
Doctoral students	Ralph Arthur James Joseph William Kennedy Elizabeth Rauscher Arthur Wahl
Other notable students	Margaret Melhase, Geoffrey Wilkinson
Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
In office March 1, 1961 – August 16, 1971
Preceded by	John McCone
Succeeded by	James R. Schlesinger
2nd Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley
In office 1958–1961
Preceded by	Clark Kerr
Succeeded by	Edward W. Strong
Signature

Glenn Theodore Seaborg (/ˈsiːbɔːrɡ/ SEE-borg; April 19, 1912 – February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.^[3] His work in this area also led to his development of the actinide concept and the arrangement of the actinide series in the periodic table of the elements.

Seaborg spent most of his career as an educator and research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, serving as a professor, and, between 1958 and 1961, as the university's second chancellor.^[4] He advised ten US presidents—from Harry S. Truman to Bill Clinton—on nuclear policy and was Chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission from 1961 to 1971, where he pushed for commercial nuclear energy and the peaceful applications of nuclear science. Throughout his career, Seaborg worked for arms control. He was a signatory to the Franck Report and contributed to the Limited Test Ban Treaty, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He was a well-known advocate of science education and federal funding for pure research. Toward the end of the Eisenhower administration, he was the principal author of the Seaborg Report on academic science, and, as a member of President Ronald Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education, he was a key contributor to its 1983 report "A Nation at Risk".

Seaborg was the principal or co-discoverer of ten elements: plutonium, americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium and element 106, which, while he was still living, was named seaborgium in his honor. He said about this naming, "This is the greatest honor ever bestowed upon me--even better, I think, than winning the Nobel Prize. Future students of chemistry, in learning about the periodic table, may have reason to ask why the element was named for me, and thereby learn more about my work."^[5] He also discovered more than 100 isotopes of transuranium elements 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 implosion-type atomic bomb. Early in his career, he was a pioneer in nuclear medicine and discovered isotopes of elements with important applications in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, including 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, he postulated the existence 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 the chemical element seaborgium to the asteroid 4856 Seaborg. He was a prolific author, penning numerous books and 500 journal articles, often in collaboration with others. He was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person with the longest entry in Who's Who in America.^[5]