Glenn Seaborg

American scientist, a multifaceted nuclear chemist and Nobel prize winner for his discovery of the radioactive element plutonium, the first scientist to head the Atomic Energy Commission. He also played a key role in the World War II Manhattan Project which produced the atomic bomb. He discovered ten atomic elements, including plutonium and one that now bears his name. The wide diversity of his interests and activities earned him the one-time citation in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest entry in Who's Who.

Born in Ishpeming, Michigan, Seaborg moved with his family to southern California in 1922 and settled in what is now part of South Gate. His childhood and adolescence were normal. He attended local public schools, played football, and delivered newspapers, and showed no real interest in science until an enthusiastic high school teacher inspired an interest in physics and chemistry. He graduated valedictorian from his high school in 1929, then worked his way through UCLA maintaining a high enough average to be elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. His teachers encouraged him to pursue a career in nuclear chemistry, and after receiving his B.A. degree in 1934, he transferred to Berkeley for graduate study where he received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1937. He began a life-long association with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1934 as a graduate student, going to work at the University of California (UC) Radiation Laboratory and joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1939.

He got into nuclear chemistry, he claimed, "by accident" when asked to isolate some radioisotopes by physicist Jack Livingood. It took five years, but Seaborg and Livingood discovered or characterized iodine-131, iron-59 and cobalt-60, all of which had medical applications. Ironically, iodine-131, which was widely used for diagnosing and treating thyroid disease and other disorders, extended the life of Seaborg's mother.