Glenn Seaborg, Nobel laureate discoverer of 10 elements, champion of science education, dies at 86 - Obituary

Nobel laureate chemist and CSICOP Fellow Glenn T. Seaborg - one of the outstanding scientists of the twentieth century - died February 25 at his California home of complications following a stroke last August.

He was also a highly respected statesman of science (he had served as president of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society) and had a lifetime dedication to science education both as a teacher himself and as an ardent supporter of programs to encourage young people in science. He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest entry in "Who's Who in America."

A member of the University of California faculty since 1939, he was the co-discoverer (with Edwin McMillan, with whom he shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1951) of plutonium in 1941 and of nine other transuranic elements: americium (element 95), curium (96), berkelium (97), californium (98), einsteinium (99), fermium (100), mendelevium (101), nobelium (102), and seaborgium (106) - officially named for him, to his delight, in August 1997.

He also co-discovered many of the isotopes used in nuclear medicine and industry today, including iodine-131, technetium-99m, cobalt-57, and cesium-137. In fact he has been called a father of nuclear medicine.

His formulation in 1944 of the "actinide concept" of heavy element electronic structure was called one of the most significant changes in the periodic table since Mendeleev's nineteenth century design.

At the time of his death, Seaborg was still the University of California's University Professor of Chemistry and Associate Director-at-Large of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he maintained his office. He was also chairman of the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley.

"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 life-long friend.

"Dr. Seaborg was a true giant of the twentieth century, a legend in the annals of scientific discovery," said Berkeley Lab Director Charles Shank. "For his service to science, to education, and to our nation, we honor Dr. Seaborg's distinguished lifetime."

In 1961 Seaborg was appointed chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission by President John F, Kennedy. He was subsequently reappointed by both Presidents Johnson and Nixon, serving in that position until 1971. Although he participated in the Manhattan Project and headed the AEC, he was also a proponent of nuclear arms control and wrote books focusing on arms control issues and related public issues.

He served on the national commission that published A Nation at Risk in 1983 and frequently spoke out on the need for science education.

"Glenn Seaborg was a stalwart friend of CSICOP in its defense of science," says CSICOP chairman Paul Kurtz. "He recently was pleased to join our Council for Media Integrity and to lend his name to those of us who wish to raise the level of scientific literacy in the United States. The skeptical movement has lost a powerful voice."

Seaborg had a long association with the concerns of CSICOP. He was one of the original signers of the "Objections to Astrology" statement in 1975 that helped lead to the creation of CSICOP. A CSICOP Fellow, he published two articles in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, "The Crisis in Pre-College Science and Math Education" (Spring 1990) and "The Positive Power of Radioisotopes" (January/February 1995).

When CSICOP's Council for Media Integrity was founded in 1996, he became co-chairman, with Steve Allen, and spoke at the Council's first news conference, in Los Angeles. "We have a problem with regard to the amount of pseudoscience facing us," he said. "One solution is increasing the scientific literacy of the general public." (See SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, May/June 1997.)

In a SKEPTICAL INQUIRER interview titled "The Elemental Man" (November/December 1997), Seaborg spoke of his love of science. ("It's just the excitement of it; the adventure of it. My whole life I've been paid for doing what I want to do.") He also expressed his concern about bogus science - "a whole world of what you might call pseudoscience, false depictions of science and its impact upon society." Better science education and groups like the Council for Media Integrity are among the antidotes, he said. He urged more scientists to become involved with the public. "We need more scientists willing to communicate to the general public the essence of science and the values of science." And he expressed pride that despite all his involvement in Washington policy and public affairs, he always maintained his connection to science. "All my life I've continued my science."

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