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Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry
in 1951 for discovering plutonium. The radioactive element seaborgium
is named in his honor.
Glenn Seaborg worked his way through UCLA in a variety of ways
— as stevedore, night watchman, apricot picker and linotype
mechanic apprentice, earning his A.B. degree in 1934. Later he attended
UC Berkeley where he became a faculty member and Chancellor. In
1960 he was appointed Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
He once said, "Two people inspired me. One was Dwight Logan
Reid, my chemistry and physics teacher at David Starr Jordan High
School, Los Angeles — which was in Watts. The other was John
Mead Adams of UCLA who taught a course in atomic physics in which
I learned about nuclear physics. After that course, I knew that
I wanted to get into nuclear research."
Seaborg kept close ties with the UCLA Chemistry Department; the
annual Seaborg Symposium is still held in his honor.
From UCLA on the Move by John Jackson
Glenn Seaborg was born April 19, 1912 and died February 1999.
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