Short Biography of Glenn Seaborg

Glenn T. Seaborg

Glenn Seaborg was born in Michigan on April 19, 1912. He lived in poverty during his childhood and did not know if he would be able to go to college. He wanted to study literature and knew that if he was going to get into a state college he would need to take a science class. He signed up for chemistry and after a short time in the class he decided that he would go to college and study chemistry instead of literature. He went to the University of California at Los Angeles and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. He then went on to earn a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. When Glenn Seaborg arrived at Berkeley, the heaviest known chemical element was uranium (atomic number 92). Using the cyclotron invented by Ernest O. Lawrence, Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson produced the first "transuranium" element, number 93, which they named neptunium. When McMillan left to work on developing radar, 28 year old Glenn Seaborg took...