This issue...
Brieflies
View from the Inside
Extremophiles
Plant Information Superhighway
Working Science: Glenn Seaborg Remembrance
People
E-mail Reminder
This issue...
Brieflies
View from the Inside
Extremophiles
Plant Information Superhighway
Working Science: Glenn Seaborg Remembrance
People
E-mail Reminder
This issue...
Brieflies
View from the Inside
Extremophiles
Plant Information Superhighway
Working Science: Glenn Seaborg Remembrance
People
E-mail Reminder
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Working Science
Richland ACS Remembers Glenn Seaborg's Last Trip to Hanford
Seaborg died February 25, 1999, at the age of 86.
by Sallie J. Ortiz
Professor Glenn T. Seaborg's keynote and banquet addresses were the highlights of last summer's 53rd Northwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society -- NORM '98. This meeting also marked the 50th Anniversary of the historic Richland ACS Section (1948 to 1998), which hosted the regional meeting. Dr. Seaborg's attendance at the celebration made it truly golden.
Seaborg packed a high school auditorium with about 700 people for his famous presentation, "My Service with Ten Presidents." He served as national science policy advisor throughout the most turbulent times in U.S. history, from Franklin Roosevelt to George Bush. He even gave President Bill Clinton a little advice when Clinton didn't know what to say about cold fusion. Seaborg told him, "Well, it's very cold. Next time you're asked, you can take a dim view of it."
Seaborg was also the highlight of the Undergraduate Program at the regional meeting, and the special luncheon with the students was a highlight for him. He commented afterward how much he enjoyed meeting with the students like that and was quite impressed with some of their questions. The students will no doubt never forget the opportunity they had to ask those questions and generally have Professor Seaborg all to themselves.
Seaborg was very generous about signing the students' program books and the periodic tables -- next to his namesake element seaborgium. Seaborg even signed a large quilt made to look like a periodic table.
Seaborg's history with Hanford goes back a long way--to its very beginning. The development of Hanford began with the building of a large chemical separation plant in the desert to isolate great quantities of plutonium-239, based on the chemistry worked out by Seaborg's Manhatten Project group. Seaborg came back to Hanford many times over the years.
"I had a feeling the entire time we were working to prepare NORM '98 that this would very likely be his [Seaborg's] last trip to Hanford. That's why Sam Bryan and I stopped to take a few extra minutes to watch the plane as it took off into the distance when Glenn and Helen left," said Timothy Hubler, ACS Chair for NORM '98.
As it turned out, it was Seaborg's last trip to Hanford. Hubler met with Seaborg one more time at the ACS National Meeting in Boston to give him photos from the regional meeting. This photo was taken on August 23, 1998, the evening that Seaborg received recognition as one of the "Top 75 Distinguished Contributors to the Chemical Enterprise." The next day he suffered a devastating stroke during his morning walk and died from complications of that illness on February 25, 1999, at his home in Lafayette, California.
"I will always remember our conversation with such a famous, yet very personable and interesting person, as we waited with Seaborg at the airport for about half an hour, just talking about some of his experiences," said Hubler.
Seaborg used nearly those same words in his biography to describe Einstein, remembering the first time he met him when he was a young university student. "I was very impressed, and awed that such a great man was so approachable, considerate, easy to talk to, and not condescending."
Guess the truly great ones are like that.
Related Links:
Glenn Seaborg's Website, from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This outstanding website chronicles the monumental life of Glenn Seaborg.
My Service with Ten Presidents. Glenn Seaborg's famous presentation with photos.
List of Publications by Glenn Seaborg
Richland Section American Chemical Society - 53rd Northwest Regional Meeting (NORM '98) Program/Abstract Books
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Seaborg was the only scientist to have an element named after him while he was still alive. "That's a great honor because it lasts forever," he once told a reporter. "One hundred years from now, or a thousand years from now, it'll still be seaborgium when you'd probably have to look in obscure books to find any reference to what I had done."
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