Seaborg's death came while he was convalescing at home in
Lafayette, near Berkeley. The internationally renowned chemist
and educator had suffered a stroke on August 24, 1998, while
in Boston for the national meeting of the American Chemical
Society. At the meeting, Seaborg was named one of the
"Top 75 Distinguished Contributors to the Chemical
Enterprise."
To say that Seaborg had a high-profile career is an
understatement. He is in the Guiness Book of World Records for
having the longest entry in "Who's Who in America."
In addition to sharing the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with
the late Edwin McMillan for research into the transuranium
elements (those beyond uranium on the periodic table), Seaborg
received the National Medal of Science in 1991, this nation's
highest award for scientific achievement. He was a member of
the Manhattan Project, Chancellor of the University of
California at Berkeley (1958-1961), and Chairman of the Atomic
Energy Commission (the predecessor to today's U.S. Department
of Energy) under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon
(1961-1971). He also served as president for both the American
Association for the Advancement of Science and the American
Chemical Society.
Seaborg had a life-long association with the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Commenting on
Seaborg's death, Berkeley Lab Director Charles Shank said,
"Dr. Seaborg was a true giant of the 20th Century, a
legend in the annals of scientific discovery. His daily
commitment to matters of the laboratory, even in retirement as
associate director-at-large and as an active researcher, was
an inspiration to us all. Berkeley Lab is proud to have been
Dr. Seaborg's home for so many of his discoveries, and we are
fortunate to have benefited from his international acclaim.
"For his service to science, to education, and to our
nation, we honor Dr. Seaborg's distinguished lifetime and will
forever treasure his contributions to our institutions and to
our lives. We who have been touched by his wisdom, his energy,
and his tireless devotion to our profession will miss
him."
Said University of California President Richard Atkinson,
"Glenn Seaborg gave his magnificent intellect to the
world and his heart and soul to the University of California.
He once said that everything he had achieved in a lifetime of
towering accomplishment he owed to his association with UC.
Few universities have been given so much in return. As a Nobel
Prize-winning scientist who revolutionized our understanding
of matter, and as a superb professor, chancellor, laboratory
leader, and champion of science education for generations of
California's children, Dr. Seaborg has earned a proud and
permanent place in the University's history. We will miss him
deeply."
Said UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl, "The
world today has lost a great man of science. At the University
of California, Berkeley, we have lost a revered member of our
campus family. We cherished Glenn Seaborg, and we will miss
him dearly. He embraced this place as his family, and for more
than six decades he loved it as deeply as anyone could.
Berkeley, in return, loved him with its whole heart."
Seaborg had a long and distinguished career not only in
science but in education and public service.
"I consider Glenn Seaborg, among all the faculty of
the University of California, to be the most distinguished in
all the four areas of excellence in which we judge faculty -
research, teaching, university service and service to the
country," said Clark Kerr, former president of the
University of California and a long-time friend who nominated
Seaborg to be UC Berkeley chancellor in 1958. "He was the
best balanced, most distinguished faculty member at the most
balanced distinguished university in the country."
Seaborg was born in 1912 in Ishpeming, Michigan. He
received his B.A. from UCLA in 1934 and his Ph.D. in chemistry
from UC Berkeley in 1937. His life-long association with the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory began in 1934 when, as a
graduate student, he went to work at the UC Radiation
Laboratory (the forerunner to LBNL). He joined the UC Berkeley
faculty in 1939 and, following his time at the AEC helm,
returned to Berkeley where he continued his search for new
elements and isotopes.
Seaborg is perhaps best known for his role in the discovery
of plutonium. This took place in February 1941, when Seaborg,
McMillan, Joseph Kennedy, and Arthur Wahl, using the 60-inch
cyclotron built by Ernest Lawrence, bombarded a sample of
uranium with deuterons and transmuted it into plutonium. In
1944, Seaborg formulated the "actinide concept" of
heavy element electronic structure which predicted that the
actinides -- including the first eleven transuranium elements
-- would form a transition series analogous to the rare earth
series of lanthanide elements. Called one of the most
significant changes in the periodic table since Mendeleev's
19th century design, the actinide concept showed how the
transuranium elements fit into the periodic table. Seaborg and
his colleagues used this concept as a stepping stone to the
creation of a succession of transuranium elements, including
americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium,
fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, and seaborgium. When
"seaborgium" was officially accepted as the name for
element 106 in August, 1997, it marked the first time an
element had ever been named for a living person. Seaborg
called it his greatest honor.
Throughout his research career, Seaborg was also a champion
for science education. In addition to his role in establishing
the Lawrence Hall of Science, he was a member of President
Reagan's National Commission on Excellence in Education, which
produced the landmark 1983 report, "A Nation at Risk: The
Imperative for Educational Reform." He was also a primary
mover behind "Great Explorations in Math and
Science," a leading Internet resource for science
teachers.
Seaborg was also a major advocate for nuclear arms control,
international cooperation in science, and conservation of
natural resources. He wrote more than 500 scientific articles
and numerous books including an autobiography published
September 1998 entitled: A Chemist in the White
House: From the Manhattan Project to the End of the Cold War.
He held more than 40 patents, including the only ones for a
chemical element (americium and curium), and had been awarded
more than 50 honorary doctoral degrees.
Seaborg is survived by his wife Helen Griggs Seaborg. They
were married on June 6, 1942. Their first child, Peter Glenn
Seaborg, died in 1997. They have five surviving children:
Lynne Seaborg Cobb, David Seaborg, Steve Seaborg, Eric
Seaborg, and Dianne Seaborg.
Details of a planned memorial service will be announced at
a later date.
