Glenn T. Seaborg

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Glenn T. Seaborg

Glenn Theodore Seaborg (born April 19, 1912 in Ishpeming , Marquette County , Michigan , † February 25, 1999 in Lafayette , California ) was an American chemist and nuclear physicist . He was involved in the discovery of the elements plutonium , americium , curium , berkelium , californium , einsteinium , fermium , mendelevium , nobelium and the seaborgium named after him . For his work on the isolation and identification of transuranium elements , he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1951 .

Personal

Glenn Seaborg studied at the University of California, Los Angeles (Bachelor 1934) and at the University of California, Berkeley , where he received his doctorate in 1937. Here he became an instructor in 1939, assistant professor in 1941 and professor of chemistry in 1945 . From 1971 he had the rank of University Professor . 1958 to 1961 he was Chancellor of the university.

He discovered over 100 isotopes of chemical elements and was involved in the discovery of the transuranic elements . He was one of the signatories of the Franck Report , which spoke out against the use of the atomic bomb in the war against Japan.

In 1942 Seaborg married the secretary Helen Griggs. In a hurry because of the war, they got off the Los Angeles to Chicago train in Nevada to get married. But it turned out that the place where they got off did not have a registry office. They therefore had to take a mail truck to the next town. Seaborg had six children with Helen and was passionate about sports; Golf was his favorite hobby. From 1961 to 1971 he was chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission .

In 1998 he suffered a stroke and died on February 25, 1999 in Lafayette, California. His 90 diaries are kept in the Library of Congress .

Awards

In 1951 he and the physicist Edwin Mattison McMillan received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for their discoveries in the chemistry of the transuranic elements”.

In 1980 he was the first to the transmutation of bismuth to gold by a goal, the alchemists in search of the Philosopher's Stone tried to reach for centuries in vain.

In addition to the highest honor, the Nobel Prize, Seaborg received many other recognitions, including about 20 honorary doctorates, several medals and an honorary membership in the Chemical Society in London.

The chemical element 106 (formerly Unnilhexium) was named Seaborgium (Sg) in his honor in 1997 . Seaborg is the first person to be alive when an element was named after him.

At the time when element 106 was named after him, Discover magazine noted that it would now be possible to address a letter to him using only chemical elements: Seaborgium, Lawrencium (for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where he worked), Berkelium , Californium, americium.

Since 1948 he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences , in 1952 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society and in 1958 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1959 he received the Enrico Fermi Prize and in 1991 the National Medal of Science . In 1959 he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1968 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . From 1973 Seaborg was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . In 1985 he was elected a "Foreign Member" of the Royal Society .

The Glenn T. Seaborg Medal UCLA for outstanding achievements in chemistry and biochemistry is named after him and he was in 1987 the first prize winner. It is in honor of Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry of the American Chemical Society awarded since 1955th

Fonts (selection)

  • with Joseph J. Katz: The chemistry of the Actinide elements. Chapman and Hall, London et al. 1957.
  • Man Made Transuranium Elements. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ 1963.
    • Transuranic elements. Synthetic elements. Franckh et al., Stuttgart 1966.
  • with Earl K. Hyde and Isadore Perlman : The nuclear properties of the heavy elements. 3 volumes (Vol. 1: Systematics of nuclear structure and radioactivity. Vol. 2: Detailed radioactivity properties. Vol. 3: Fission phenomena. ). Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ 1964.
  • Public Service and Human Contributions. In: Isidor I. Rabi , Robert Serber , Victor F. Weisskopf , Abraham Pais , Glenn T. Seaborg: Oppenheimer. Scribner, New York NY 1969, pp. 63-66.
  • Nuclear Milestones. A Collection of Speeches. Freeman, San Francisco CA 1972, ISBN 0-7167-0342-4 .
  • Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Test Ban. With the Assistance of Benjamin S. Loeb. Foreword by W. Averell Harriman . University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1981, ISBN 0-520-04332-4 .
  • with Walter D. Loveland: The elements beyond Uranium. Wiley, New York NY et al. 1990, ISBN 0-471-89062-6 .
  • with Ray Colvig: Chancellor at Berkeley. University of California - Institute of Governmental Studies Press, Berkeley CA 1994, ISBN 0-87772-343-5 .
  • Modern alchemy. Selected Papers of Glenn T. Seaborg (= World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics. 2). World Scientific, Singapore et al. 1994, ISBN 981-02-1440-5 .
  • Transuranium Elements: Past, Present and Future. In: Accounts of Chemical Research . Vol. 28, No. 6, 1995, pp. 257-264, doi : 10.1021 / ar00054a003 .

literature

  • Ronald L. Kathren, Jerry B. Gough, Gary T. Benefiel (Eds.): The Plutonium Story. The Journals of Professor Glenn T. Seaborg 1939-1946. Batelle Press, Columbus OH et al. 1994, ISBN 0-935470-75-1 .
  • Darleane C. Hoffman , Albert Ghiorso , Glenn T. Seaborg: The Transuranium People. The inside story. Imperial College Press, London 2000, ISBN 1-86094-087-0 .

Web links

Commons : Glenn T. Seaborg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 6, 2020 .
  2. ^ Member entry by Glenn T. Seaborg at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 12, 2012.
  3. ^ Entry on Seaborg, Glenn Theodore (1912-1999) in the archives of the Royal Society , London
personal data
SURNAME Seaborg, Glenn T.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seaborg, Glenn Theodore (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American chemist and nuclear physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Ishpeming , Marquette County , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1999
Place of death Lafayette , California