Lester R. Morss Glenn T. Seaborg as an Exemplary Chemical Educator 11 American Chemical Society 244 th National Meeting Philadelphia August 19, 2012

2 Periodic Table, 1898 From W. Ostwald, Grundriss der Allgemeine Chemie, 1898

3 History of Actinide Elements Uranium: discovered by Klaproth, 1789 Thorium: discovered by Berzelius, 1829 Actinium: what is now known to be 227 Ac was discovered by Debierne (1900) or Giesel (1902) Protactinium: what is now known to be 234m Pa was discovered by Fajans and Göring as “brevium”, 1913 Enrico Fermi received Nobel Prize in 1938 for “transuranium elements” that were soon found to be fission products Neptunium: 239 Np discovered by McMillan and Abelson, 1940 Plutonium: 238 Pu discovered by Seaborg et al., Americium: 241 Am discovered by Seaborg et al., Curium: 242 Cm discovered by Seaborg et al., 1944 Actinide hypothesis (filling the 5f subshell): Seaborg, 1944; announced 1945

4 GTS in Berkeley, 1941

5 GTS with Periodic Table and Ion Exchange Column, May 1950

6 Production of transplutonium elements by slow-neutron irradiation Nuclear reaction sequence for production of transplutonium elements by intense slow-neutron irradiation. The principal path is shown by heavy arrows (horizontal, neutron capture; vertical, beta decay). The sequence above 258 Fm is a prediction.

7 Periodic Table, LAB/SEABORG-ARCHIVE/images/ lowres.jpeg

8 Academic Career of Glenn T. Seaborg AB Chemistry, UCLA 1934 PhD UC Berkeley with Gibson 1937 –Thesis: The Interaction of Fast Neutrons with Lead Research assistant for G. N. Lewis, Instructor, Assistant professor, Section leader, Manhattan Project Professor, Chancellor

9 What defines a chemical educator? Classroom teaching Education of graduate students Curricular innovations Service on advisory panels that improve education Mentoring junior colleagues Leadership in professional organizations Textbooks and monographs

10 Seaborg as chemical educator Chaired a panel of President Eisenhower's Science Advisory Committee to study the integration of basic research with graduate science education, 1958 –The “Seaborg Report” provided blueprint for American basic research for the next 25 years Chair, Chemical Education Material Study (CHEM Study), 1960 –Developed new teaching materials for high school chemistry President, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1972 President, American Chemical Society, 1976 Director, Lawrence Hall of Science, Co-chair with Secretary of Energy James D. Watkins at a summit conference on pre-college science and math education, –Report issued on May 22, 1990 Appointed by California Governor Pete Wilson as Chairman of the Science Committee of the California Commission for the Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards, 1998.

11 Announcement of discovery of Am and Cm Glenn T. Seaborg and Quiz Kids Sheila Conlon and Bob Burke when Seaborg informally announces the discovery of element 95 (americium) and element 96 (curium) in Chicago on the radio show “Quiz Kids” on Nov 11, LBNL photo XBD TIF

12 Anecdotal evidence Katz, “Early Days in the ‘Met Lab’ ” paper in Transuranium Elements: A Half Century, 1990 William Jolly, From Retorts to Lasers, 1987 Patrick Coffey, Cathedrals of Science, 2008 Ken Moody Lester Morss

13 Lester Morss AB Chemistry and Physics, Harvard, 1961 PhD UC Berkeley with B B Cunningham, 1969 –Thesis: Crystallography and Thermochemistry of Chlorocomplex Compounds of Lanthanides and Actinides Postdoctoral, J. W. Cobble, Purdue, Assistant and associate professor, Rutgers University, Chemist and senior chemist, Argonne, Program manager, DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences,

14 C&E News cover January 8, 1968 C&E News cover January 8, 1968

15 Cunningham in Berkeley laboratory, 1956

16 Morss, Cunningham, Seaborg, and Katz Morss met Seaborg during AEC chair’s Berkeley visit ~1968 Cunningham died March 28, 1971 –Seaborg writes to Morss, offering to be surrogate mentor Seaborg invited Morss to author chapter in The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements, 2 nd ed. –Submits chapter 1978 Morss met Katz at Argonne 1980 –Became third editor of The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements, 2 nd ed. –Mentored by Katz in editing many chapters –Frequent meetings with Katz and Seaborg at ACS meetings –2 nd edition of The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements published 1986 Plans for 3 rd edition of The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements through August 1998

17 Katz publications with Seaborg G. T. Seaborg, J. J. Katz, and W. M. Manning, (eds.) (1949) The Transuranium Elements: Research Papers, Natl. Nucl. En. Ser., Div. IV, 14B, McGraw ‐ Hill. Glenn T. Seaborg and Joseph J. Katz (eds.), The Actinide Elements, McGraw-Hill, Joseph J. Katz and Glenn T. Seaborg, The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements, Methuen, Joseph J. Katz, Glenn T. Seaborg, and Lester R. Morss (eds.), The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements, 2 nd ed., 2 vols., Chapman & Hall, –3 rd and 4 th editions: Morss, Fuger, Edelstein (eds.) The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements, 2006 (5 vols) and 2010 (6 vols)

18 Dedication of The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements, 3 rd ed.

19 Production of transcurium isotopes in USA a Isotope Half-lifeAmount/year, 1983 Amount/campaign, Cm3.48 x 10 5 yr 150 mg b 100 mg b 249 Bk330 d50 mg45 mg 249 Cf351 yr50 mg c <45 mg c 252 Cf2.645 yr500 mg 400 mg 253 Es20.47 d2 mg a 1-2 mg d 254 Es275.7 d 3  g4  g 257 Fm100.5 d1 pg a One or two separation campaigns per year until about 1995; one campaign every months from about 1995 to b From  decay of 252 Cf. c From  decay of 249 Bk. d Mixed with % 254 Es; chemical separation of 253 Cf followed by its  decay can yield ~200  g of isotopically pure 253 Es.

20 Seaborg, “Prospects for Further Extension of the Periodic Table,” J. Chem. Ed. 46, 626 (1969)

21 Table of Isotopes: Island of Stability The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elememts (2006) Fig Plot of heavy element topology showing landing points for proposed reactions. Heavy element isotopes reported since 1978 up to mid ‐ 2002 are indicated with symbols denoting half ‐ life ranges: 0.1 ms to 0.1 s (+); 0.1 s to 5 min (○); > 5 min (  ).

22 Chart of nuclides above berkelium (Z = 97), July 2012 E M Ramirez et al. Science, July 2012: science fig 1 Published by AAAS

23 Glenn Seaborg with CSEE students at LBNL Bldg 50 CSEE: Center for Science and Engineering Education at LBNL

24 Professor Burris Bell Cunningham

25 Cunningham’s Salvioni balance

26 First weighed sample of PuO 2 : 2.77 μg, Sept 10, 1942

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