"I hardly noticed that the work was exacting and demanding, because I couldn’t believe that I was being paid to do what I would have chosen as a hobby. It was exciting just to walk into the lab, full of anticipation that that day I might be the first human being ever to see some unimaginable new creation."
–Glenn Seaborg
Advising nine presidents on nuclear policy as the Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Glenn T. Seaborg, whose centenary we celebrate today, contributed to the discovery and isolation of ten elements, was the author of 500 scientific articles, father of six kids and, most notably, the recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Gaining international fame over the course of his career, Seaborg is best known for discovering the element plutonium in 1941, as well as nine other new transuranic elements.