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nuclear chemist. For his discovery of plutonium and research on the transuranic
elements, he shared a Nobel prize 1951 with his co-worker
Edwin McMillan. Seaborg was born in Michigan and studied at the University of California. During part of World War II he was at the metallurgical laboratory at Chicago University, where much of the early work on the atomic bomb was carried out. He was professor at the University of California at Berkeley 1945-61, and chair of the Atomic Energy Commission 1961-71, encouraging the rapid growth of the US nuclear-power industry. He returned to Berkeley 1971. Transuranic elements are all radioactive and none occurs to any appreciable extent in nature; they are synthesized by transmutation reactions. Seaborg was involved in the identification of plutonium (atomic number 94) 1940, americium (95) 1944-45, curium (96) 1944, berkelium (97) 1949, californium (98) 1950, einsteinium (99) 1952, fermium (100) 1953, mendelevium (101) 1955, and nobelium (102) 1957. |