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Albert Ghiorso



Albert Ghiorso
Born15 July 1915 (1915-07-15) (age 97)
Vallejo, California, U.S.
Fieldnuclear scientist
Known forchemical element discoveries
Notable prizes2004 Lifetime Achievement Award, Radiochemistry Society

Albert Ghiorso (b. 15 July 1915) is an American nuclear scientist who helped discover numerous chemical elements on the periodic table.

Contents

Biography

Early life

He was born in Vallejo, California and grew up in Alameda, California. As a teenager, he built radio circuitry and earned a reputation for establishing radio contacts at distances that outdid the military.

He received his BS in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937[1]. After graduation, he worked for a company that produced emergency communication devices, and invented the world's first commercial Geiger counter, which evolved into his participation in the Manhattan Project.

He was introduced to Glenn T. Seaborg through a mutual friendship between their wives who also worked as secretaries at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory. (Likewise, Helen Griggs Seaborg was Ernest Orlando Lawrence's secretary when she met Glenn Seaborg.)

Research

Seaborg and Ghiorso's collaboration was most fruitful in the early days of the cyclotron, when its results were hard to identify and detect. Their work resulted in many elements being discovered at UC Berkeley, and Ghiorso is credited with having co-discovered the following elements:

Before the mishap about the discovery of element #118 in 2000, the element was proposed to be named Ghiorsium by his colleagues.

External references

  • Radiochemistry Society awards him the Lifetime Achievement Award
  • Image from LBL archives. Ghiorso is center of the three.

See also

  • Darleane Hoffman, succeeded Seaborg as leader of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Heavy Element Nuclear and Radiochemisry Group
  • Greg Choppin, co-discoverer of element 101, Mendelevium
  • Glenn T. Seaborg

References

  1. ^ Radiochemistry Society Hall of Fame.


Persondata
NAME Ghiorso, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION nuclear scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 15 July 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Vallejo, California, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Albert_Ghiorso". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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