GLENN T. SEABORG: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND ACCOLADES - BIOGRAPHIES - 2025

Glenn Seaborg (1912-1999) was an American nuclear chemist, best known for being part of the team of chemists that created plutonium. This element was the fuel that was used in the atomic bomb that destroyed Nagasaki in 1945.

Plutonium was one of the transuranic elements Seaborg discovered, but up to nine elements in total were attributed to it. These elements were characterized by being artificial and heavier than uranium. In short, a job for which he gained worldwide fame.

Source: Glenn_Seaborg_1964.png: unknown derivative work: Materialscientist, via Wikimedia Commons.

Seaborg's work earned him the 1951 Nobel Prize in the area of ​​chemistry. He received the award with Edwin Mattison for his work on transuranic elements. He was also recognized when the element Seaborgio (Sg) was named in his honor. Until then, no item had been named after a living person.

Biography

His full name was Glenn Theodore Seaborg. He was born on April 19, 1912 in the city of Ishpeming, Michigan (United States), although when he was 10 years old he moved with his family to California. In Los Angeles he completed his high school education with honors at the David Starr Jordan School.

He learned to speak Swedish before English. The reason was that her mother, Selma Olivia Seaborg, was an immigrant from the Nordic country.

Personal life

In 1942 Seaborg married Helen Griggs, who served as secretary to the 1939 Nobel Prize winner in physics, Dr. Ernest Lawrence. The couple had six children in total: Peter, Lynne, David, Stephen, John Eric, and Dianne.

One of Seaborg's main passions was sports, with golf being one of his favorite hobbies. In his youth, between 1953 and 1958, he was an athletic representative in the faculty to which he belonged at his university.

College life

After completing his high school education, Seaborg entered the University of California in 1929. He received a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Berkeley in 1937.

After completing his studies, he worked as a personal assistant in Gilbert Newton Lewis' laboratory. The two scientists published a remarkable number of articles together.

In 1939 he was appointed an instructor of chemistry at Berkeley, serving in that role for two years until he was promoted to assistant professor and then, in 1945, to the position of full professor of chemistry. A year later he was commissioned to head the nuclear chemistry research department at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.

He was appointed by Harry Truman, President of the United States at the time, to be a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. Role that he fulfilled until 1950.

In 1958 he was appointed rector of Berkeley. This position served for President John F. Kennedy to include him again in the atomic energy commission in 1961, this time being named president.

His work to discover plutonium occurred during a Berkeley leave of absence. These works were carried out at the University of Chicago, more specifically in the metallurgical laboratory of the academic institution.

Death

Seaborg died on February 25, 1999. He was 86 years old and suffered from complications from a stroke he had suffered the previous August while exercising.

He had complications because when he collapsed, he fell down some stairs and suffered serious injuries. He was lying on the ground for several hours before being discovered.

Since then, Seaborg spent his last months of life paralyzed in most of his body. The stroke occurred in Boston, but Seaborg died at his home in Lafayette, California.

Contributions to science

His contributions in the area of ​​chemistry were numerous. His international recognition was thanks to his nuclear work.

He led the investigations to create nine artificial elements that were grouped together as transuranic elements. He also created isotopes with his working group. His work was so relevant that a chemical element bears his name (Seaborgio), even though it was not discovered or created by Seaborg.

Medical isotopes

Seaborg and John Livingood worked together and managed to discover iodine 131 and cobalt 60. Both are radioisotopes, that is, they are the atoms of a chemical element that transmit radiation. It was relevant because they served for medical diagnoses and treatments.

Iodine 131 has been used to treat simple goiter, neuroblastoma, and hyperthyroidism. Cobalt has served in the sterilization of medical material, as a source for radiotherapy, radiography and different uses in laboratories.

The discovery of plutonium

In 1940, Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson discovered element 93 in the Berkeley radiation laboratory. This advance occurred thanks to the use of the cyclotron, which is a particle accelerator. They decided to call the new element neptunium.

The scientists later decided to turn their attention to further research, and Seaborg delved into the use of the cyclotron. His intention was to discover element 94. It happened in 1941, when he created plutonium. Everything was possible by having bombarded the uranium with nuclei of heavy hydrogen.

Just a few days later, Seaborg and his team discovered that the plutonium-239 isotope could undergo a nuclear reaction. That is, it could be used in nuclear weapons and to produce nuclear energy.

Other elements

After discovering the plutonium, Seaborg's team continued to work with the cyclotron. These experiments led them to create curium and americium in 1944, berkelium in 1949, californium in 1950, and mendelevium in 1955.

Thanks to nuclear weapons tests in 1952, Seaborg also discovered einsteinium and fermium. He discovered the nobelium, whose name was a tribute to Alfred Nobel.

Albert Ghiorso was one of the most recurring contributors to the Seaborg discoveries. He participated in all his work, except in the creation of plutonium.

Americium is used today in smoke detectors and curium is a widely used element in medicine.

The atomic bomb

As Seaborg was an expert in nuclear chemistry, he was asked to participate in the Manhattan Project, during World War II, in order to produce nuclear weapons. To do this, Seaborg moved to Chicago and led more than 100 scientists.

They focused on refining the plutonium and producing it in quantities that would be viable for an atomic bomb.

His name appeared in the Franck Report, a secret document requesting that the bomb not be used as a weapon. The scientists who signed the report asked the government that other countries witness an atomic explosion demonstration, including Japan.

According to the scientists, this would be enough to persuade Japan to surrender. However, the bomb that fell on Nagasaki in 1945 was a plutonium bomb. While the Hiroshima was uranium.

The new periodic table

Seaborg proposed in 1944 that the periodic table have an additional row. This row would be located below the lanthanide elements. The new row of elements proposed by Seaborg would be called actinides.

He was advised to give up on his idea, and indeed some believed it would end his career, but Seaborg still published his proposal. Far from affecting his reputation, the idea served to redesign the periodic table.

The actinide element line is seen at the bottom of the standard periodic table. It ranges from element 89 (actinium) to 103 (lawrencio). In this line you can get all the elements that Seaborg created.

Patents

From 1954 to 1965 Seaborg was awarded a total of 43 patents. These had to do with ways to process and separate heavy radioactive elements.

He also had a patent on the methods that were used to create and separate the americium, which generated many economic benefits. He received money continuously after this element became a fundamental part of the operation of smoke detectors.

Recognitions

Seaborg received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1951. At that time he was only 39 years old and shared the award with Edwin McMillan. Both were awarded thanks to the work they did in discovering the transuranic elements.

Both scientists had to travel to Stockholm, Sweden, to receive the award. Seaborg gave his acceptance speech in Swedish, a language he learned from his mother.

In 1997 the element Seaborgio was named in his honor. By then, it was the only item that bore the name of someone who was still living.

As a curiosity of his life, Seaborg holds a record in the Guinness Book of Records for having the longest entry in the book Who's Who in America. This publication was a biographical dictionary where information on important men and women appeared. It was first published in 1899.

His scientific career allowed him to be part of several of the most important organizations in the area and the academies of sciences in eight foreign countries appointed him as an honorary member. In addition, up to nine US presidents requested or followed his advice.

References

1. Office of the Home Secretary National Academy of Sciences. (2000). Biographical Memoirs, Volume 78.
2. Hargittai, B., Hargittai, M., & Hargittai, I. Great minds.
3. Leroy, F. (2003). A Century of Nobel Prize Recipients: Chemistry, Physics, and Medicine.
4. Seaborg, G. (1994). Modern alchemy. Singapore: World Scientific.
5. Seaborg, G., & Loeb, B. (1993). The Atomic Energy Commission under Nixon. New York: St. Martin's Press.