Elementymology & Elements Multidict

memory peg	Artificial radioactive element melting point -- °C; -- °F boiling point -- °C; -- °F density -- g/cc; -- pounds/cubic foot
1974 Albert Ghiorso and co-workers, Berkeley, Calif., USA
Glenn T. Seaborg (1912-1999)

First prepared in 1974, by Albert Ghiorso, J.M. Nitschke, J.R. Alonso, C.T. Alonso, M. Nurmia, E. Kenneth Hulet, R.W. Lougheed, and Glenn T. Seaborg at the Berkeley Laboratory of the University of California, simultaneously with the Объединенный Институт Ядерных Исследований (ОИЯИ) - Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) at Дубна (Dubna). The Russian experiments involved the bombardment of Lead isotopes with Chromium-54 ions while the American performed the collision of Oxygen ions with Californium-249 ions. However, it was not until 1993 that its existence was confirmed by the American university. The TWG gave full credit for the discovery of 106 to the Ghiorso-Hulet team. Although the Transfermium Working Group ruled that LBL and the Russian group should share credit for the discovery of elements 104 and 105 (a decision with which Seaborg and Ghiorso disagreed)

The systematic IUPAC name was Unnilhexium (Unh). The idea to name it Seaborgium came from Al Ghiorsio. Seaborg says in his autobiography, more about this naming (note) :

...we were given credit for the discovery and the accompanying right to name the new element. The eight members of the Ghiorso group suggested a wide range of names honoring Isaac Newton, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Ferdinand Magellan, the mythical Ulysses, George Washington, and Finland, the native land of a member of the team. There was no focus and no front-runner for a long period.
Then one day Al [Ghiorsio] walked into my office and asked what I thought of naming element 106 "seaborgium." I was floored.

The name Seaborgium and symbol Sg was announced at the 207th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego in March 1994. The announcement was made by Kenneth Hulet, retired chemist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and one of the co-discoverers of Seaborgium. The ACS's own nomenclature committee promptly adopted the name. However, in August 1994 the 20-member IUPAC nomenclature committee, prior to voting on nomenclature, adopted a new rule that no element should be named for a living person. Although this has happened in the past with Einsteinium and Fermium in 1952/53. Consequently, they rejected the name Seaborgium for element #106 and proposed Rutherfordium (Rf). One of the Americans on the committee defended the decision to ignore the wishes of 106's discoverers in the Chemical & Engineering News of October 1994 (note):

"Discoverers don't have a right to name an element. They have a right to suggest a name. And, of course, we didn't infringe on that at all."

"This would be the first time in history that the acknowledged and uncontested discoverers of an element are denied the privilege of naming it."

Finally, after much discussion, in 1997 a compromise was made and the name Seaborgium was ratified by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Council meeting in Geneva during August 1997 (see "Naming the transfermium elements" on the IUPAC names page).

He was involved in the discovery of the elements 93 through 102: these discoveries made the greatest changes in the periodic table since the time of Mendeleyev. From 1961 to 1971 he was head of the Atomic Energy Commission. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Edwin McMillan in 1951.

About the naming, Glenn Seaborg himself wrote in 1994:

"I am, needless to say, proud that U.S. chemists recommended that element 106, which is placed under tungsten (74), be called 'seaborgium.' I was looking forward to the day when chemical investigators will refer to such compounds as seaborgous chloride, seaborgic nitrate, and perhaps, sodium seaborgate." (note)

"This is the greatest honor ever bestowed upon me--even better, I think, than winning the Nobel Prize, Future students of chemistry, in learning about the periodic table, may have reason to ask why the element was named for me, and thereby learn more about my work." (note)

Jeffrey Winters wrote in January 1998 in Discover Magazine:

"Not only is Seaborg the first living scientist to have an element named after him, he’s also the only person who could receive mail addressed only in elements: Seaborgium, Lawrencium (for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where he still works), Berkelium, Californium, Americium. But don’t forget the zip code." (note)

• Glenn T. Seaborg, Transuranium elements: A Half Century. Remarks at ACS Symposium to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Transuranium Elements, Washington D.C., August 27, 1990. (PDF-file available on-line).
• Seaborgium: Element 106 named in honor of Glenn T. Seaborg, LBL's associate director at large (on-line).
• Lynn Yarris, Naming of element 106 disputed by international committee. October 14, 1994 (on-line).
• Glenn Seaborg: His life and contributions. (on-line).