Periodic table changed by glenn seaborg biography

American chemist (–)

Glenn Theodore Seaborg (SEE-borg; April 19, &#;&#; February 25, ) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 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 and , as the university's second chancellor. 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 to , 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 fundi

You acted on your convictions at the time and joined a number of your colleagues in signing the Franck Report. What kind of discussions preceded that report?

Glenn Seaborg: We just met in the rooms there in the physics building of the University of Chicago and came to an agreement that we would make this recommendation. It was drafted by a chemist named Eugene Rabinowitch. He did the actual drafting of the language in the report. The report is now available. Anybody can read it. It made essentially two recommendations. One is that there be a demonstration with the hope of forestalling the need to use the bomb and the other one was that we should proceed immediately toward some system of international control of nuclear weapons. Those were the two main recommendations in the Franck Report.

Those who created this technology hoped that it would be used in a more limited way, and more wisely?

Yes, but that wasn&#;t a unanimous opinion. I&#;m saying our committee made that recommendation. There were scientists who thought it should be used, and of course the highest-level scientists that were consulted suggested that it be used.

One of the most defining characteristics of our history since the end of World War II has been the nuclear arms race. Something that the group you were involved in obviously worried about if, even if you didn&#;t quite foresee it.

Glenn Seaborg: Well, we essentially foresaw it. That&#;s right. We wanted to have some kind of international control right from the beginning, as soon as the war was over.

Because you knew that the Germans had been working on it, did you assume that other people might be working on it as well?

Glenn Seaborg: No, it wasn&#;t so much that. By that time we knew the Germans weren&#;t working on it, and there was nobody else eligible. We knew the Japanese hadn&#;t been doing it, but we knew that the Russians, the Soviets, would be able to go through the manufacturing processes neces

Early life

Glenn Theodore Seaborg was born in Ishpeming, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in the United States, on April 19, His parents were Swedish Americans, and he spoke Swedish before he spoke English. He was proud of his Swedish heritage for his entire life. Ishpeming was rural. It has a cold climate similar to that of Sweden, which is why Seaborg’ paternal grandfather and mother each moved there from Sweden. The snow was so high in winter that he skied out of the second story window of his modest house. In his 10 years in Ishpeming, he never talked on the phone or heard the word “radio”. He never forgot his roots in Ishpeming, and visited it throughout his life.

The Seaborg’s friends Bob and Ruth Engstroms had moved to Southern California and wrote a letter urging Glenn’s parents to join them. Glenn’s mother wanted to move to California because she thought it would give her children more opportunity. Glenn had one sibling, a younger sister, Jeanette. Glenn and Jeanette are shown when Glenn was four years old in Fig. 1. The Seaborgs moved to South Gate, a suburb of Los Angeles, in , when Glenn was ten. Bob Engstrom was a carpenter and helped them build their house.

Seaborg went to David Starr Jordan High School in Watts, a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles. He liked history and English, had an aptitude for math, and had no interest in science and knew little about it. As he planned his junior year, a school counselor told him that he needed at least one science class with laboratory sessions to fulfill college requirements. He wanted to go to college. So he signed up for the science class offered in his junior year, which was chemistry.

This class wa

Hank Green: If a young chemist created a dream career to-do list, it might read something like this: Expand the periodic table. Advise the president. Have an element named after you. Win a Nobel prize, and then turn lead into gold. Chemistry and physics superstar Glenn Seaborg did all of that in his lifetime, except that he actually advised ten presidents, Truman through Clinton, and only transmuted a tiny bit of gold.

(SciShow Intro plays)

Hank: Glenn Seaborg was born in and spent most of his life in California, earning a Chemistry doctorate from Berkeley and joining the faculty when he was just 27 years old. And the heart of Seaborg's life work centered on synthesizing and studying elements. He and his colleagues discovered, by which I mean created, ten transuranium elements and lots and lots of isotopes frequently used today in medicine, industry, and nuclear power. Yes, he created elements. Have a look at your periodic table, if you have one. If you don't, go to  and buy the CrashCourse Chemistry giant periodic table, 39 inches across, it's amazing. Then, tape it up above your bed so you can look at it. Technically, all of the elements through atomic number 98 occur naturally on Earth, but nine of those occur so rarely and in such small amounts that they were actually synthesized in a lab before they were ever found in nature. Seaborg helped discover/create most of these