Lester R. Morss Glenn T. Seaborg as an Exemplary Chemical
Educator 11 American Chemical Society 244 th National Meeting
Philadelphia August 19, 2012
Slide 2
2 Periodic Table, 1898 From W. Ostwald, Grundriss der
Allgemeine Chemie, 1898
Slide 3
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 Gring 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.,
1940-1941 Americium: 241 Am discovered by Seaborg et al., 1944-1945
Curium: 242 Cm discovered by Seaborg et al., 1944 Actinide
hypothesis (filling the 5f subshell): Seaborg, 1944; announced
1945
Slide 4
4 GTS in Berkeley, 1941
Slide 5
5 GTS with Periodic Table and Ion Exchange Column, May
1950
Slide 6
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.
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, 1937-39
Instructor, 1939-40 Assistant professor, 1940- Section leader,
Manhattan Project 1942-6 Professor, 1946-1999 Chancellor
Slide 9
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
Slide 10
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, 1982-1984 Co-chair with Secretary of Energy James
D. Watkins at a summit conference on pre-college science and math
education, 1989. 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.
Slide 11
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, 1945.
LBNL photo XBD9611-05600.TIF
Slide 12
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
Slide 13
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, 1969-71 Assistant and
associate professor, Rutgers University, 1971-80 Chemist and senior
chemist, Argonne, 1980- 2002 Program manager, DOE Office of Basic
Energy Sciences, 2002-1010
Slide 14
14 C&E News cover January 8, 1968 C&E News cover
January 8, 1968
Slide 15
15 Cunningham in Berkeley laboratory, 1956
Slide 16
16 Morss, Cunningham, Seaborg, and Katz Morss met Seaborg
during AEC chairs 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
Slide 17
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, 1954. Joseph J. Katz and Glenn T. Seaborg, The
Chemistry of the Actinide Elements, Methuen, 1957. Joseph J. Katz,
Glenn T. Seaborg, and Lester R. Morss (eds.), The Chemistry of the
Actinide Elements, 2 nd ed., 2 vols., Chapman & Hall, 1986. 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)
Slide 18
18 Dedication of The Chemistry of the Actinide Elements, 3 rd
ed.
Slide 19
19 Production of transcurium isotopes in USA a Isotope
Half-lifeAmount/year, 1983 Amount/campaign, 2004 248 Cm3.48 x 10 5
yr 150 mg b 100 mg b 249 Bk330 d50 mg45 mg 249 Cf351 yr50 mg c
21 Table of Isotopes: Island of Stability The Chemistry of the
Actinide and Transactinide Elememts (2006) Fig. 14.24. 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 ( ).
Slide 22
22 Chart of nuclides above berkelium (Z = 97), July 2012 E M
Ramirez et al. Science, July 2012: science.1225636. fig 1 Published
by AAAS
Slide 23
23 Glenn Seaborg with CSEE students at LBNL Bldg 50 CSEE:
Center for Science and Engineering Education at LBNL
Slide 24
24 Professor Burris Bell Cunningham
Slide 25
25 Cunninghams Salvioni balance
Slide 26
26 First weighed sample of PuO 2 : 2.77 g, Sept 10, 1942