Alumni Relations
Faculty Highlights
In Praise of Lewis and Seaborg
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Continuing his quest to educate the world about the accomplishments of G. N. Lewis, Harold Paretchan has informed us that he received a very complimentary letter from John Marburger, Director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Noted Marburger, “Gilbert Lewis is considered by many
to be the greatest and most influential of American chemists. Lewis made
outstanding contributions to thermodynamics and its relationship to chemical
equilibrium, the electron-pair bonding theory of atoms and molecules,
isotopes, and the interaction of light with matter. But in many ways,
his most important contribution was his vision for the conduct of research…Lewis
believed that a chemistry department should simultaneously teach science
and advance it.”
Marburger goes on to praise the work of Glenn Seaborg, who “followed his mentor in making significant contributions to science and society. In 1944, he developed the ‘actinide concept’ of heavy element electronic structure, probably his single greatest contribution to science. This concept predicted that the heaviest naturally occurring elements,...together with the synthetic transuranium elements, would form a transition series of ‘actinides’ analogous to the rare-earth series of ‘lanthanides.’ His insight led to the most significant restructuring of the periodic table since the table was devised in 1869 by Dmitri Mendeleev.”
