The late Melvin Calvin (left) is shown with fellow Nobel winners Yuan T. Lee and Glenn Seaborg in 1986.
The late Melvin Calvin
(left) is shown with fellow Nobel winners Yuan T. Lee and Glenn
Seaborg in 1986.
SEABORG TO PRESENT FIRST NOBEL LECTURE
HOUGHTON-Nobel Prize winner Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg will kick off Michigan Technological University's inaugural Melvin Calvin Nobel Laureate Lecture Series Wednesday June 10. Seaborg will speak on "The Future Through Science" at 3 p.m. in room U115 of the Minerals and Materials Building at MTU.
The Melvin Calvin Nobel Laureate Series was established by Michigan Tech to honor its distinguished alumnus who was a member of the first graduating class in chemistry, in 1931, from what was then the Michigan College of Mining and Technology. Dr. Calvin's work yielded important discoveries in physical, organic, and biological chemistry. He received the American Chemical Society's highest award, the Priestly Medal, and was warded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1961 for his work in photosynthesis. He died in Berkeley, California in January 1997 at the age of 85.
A native of Ishpeming, MI, Seaborg moved to California with his family at the age of 10. He received his B.S. in chemistry from UCLA in 1934 and went on to earn a Ph.D in chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley in 1937. He stayed on at Berkeley to teach and in 1946 was named director of nuclear chemical research at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory operated for the Atomic Energy Commission by the University of California.
Seaborg was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951, along with colleague Edwin M. McMillian, for discoveries of plutonium and other transuranium elements. He received the Enrico Fermi Award from the Atomic Energy Commission in 1959 for his work in nuclear chemistry. He was appointed chair of the Atomic Energy Commission by President Kennedy in 1961 and served in that capacity until 1971.
Prior to Dr. Seaborg's lecture, Michigan Tech will conduct a tree planting ceremony adjacent to the Minerals and Materials Building in his honor. MTU plans to invite a Nobel Laureate to campus every year to lecture and on each occasion a tree will be planted in honor of the Nobel Prize winner. Both the tree planting ceremony at 1:45 p.m. and the lecture at 3:00 p.m. are open to the public free of charge.