The search for knowledge has been the lifelong pursuit of countless people. From ancient antiquity to the modern era, scientific breakthroughs have been the measures to human progress. The original chemists, alchemists, believed that they could take invaluable metals such as lead and turn them into gold through a process called transmutation. Unfortunately, due to limited knowledge of chemistry at their time, there dreams could not be accomplished. As the scientific revolution pressed on and a new more analytical way of reason became the norm, shifts in what had been thought to have been acceptable practice in the scientific fields changed. Antoine Lavoisier, know, as the "father of modern chemistry" brought about a change in chemistry that went from studying qualitative properties of things to quantitative properties. This allowed for patterns to be seen and math to be used as a tool to help understand the complexities of chemistry. Huge strides have been made in the field from the make up an atom to abstract topics in theoretical quantum chemistry. The discovery of the trans-uranium elements by Glenn T. Seabord in the middle of the 20th century was a pivotal breakthrough in chemistry and has benefited many generations since. .
Glenn T. Seabord was born in Ishpeming, Michigan in April 19, 1912 ("Glenn T. Seaborg – Biographical"). After graduation David Starr Jordan High School in Los Angeles as valedictorian, Seaborg went on to continue his education at the University of California in 1929. Receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, Seabord began working as a personal laboratory assistant to G.N. Lewis, publishing multiple scientific papers with him. In 1939 Seabord took the position of an instructor in chemistry at the University of California Berkely where shortly after he became assistant professor and later professor of research at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.
