Gregory Robert Choppin (November 9, 1927,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States – October 21, 2015,

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) was an American nuclear chemist and co-discoverer of the element

mendelevium Mendelevium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Md ( formerly Mv) and atomic number 101. A metallic radioactive transuranium element in the actinide series, it is the first element by atomic number that currently cannot be produced ...

, atomic number 101. Others in the discovery group were

Albert Ghiorso Albert Ghiorso (July 15, 1915 – December 26, 2010) was an American nuclear scientist and co-discoverer of a record 12 chemical elements on the periodic table. His research career spanned six decades, from the early 1940s to the late 1990s. Biog ...

, Bernard G. Harvey, Stanley G. Thompson, and

Glenn T. Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg ( ; April 19, 1912February 25, 1999) was an American chemist whose involvement in the synthesis, discovery and investigation of ten transuranium elements earned him a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work i ...

. The element was named in honor of

Dmitri Mendeleev Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev ( ; ) was a Russian chemist known for formulating the periodic law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements. He used the periodic law not only to correct the then-accepted properties of some known ele ...

. Choppin received a Bachelor of Science degree at

Loyola University New Orleans Loyola University New Orleans is a Private university, private Jesuit university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the nam ...

and earned his doctorate at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

in 1953. He then worked as a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, from 1953 to 1956. While at Berkeley he co-discovered mendelevium. Video documentation of the discovery was produced by the television station KQED and can be viewed on YouTube with a new narration by Claude Lyneis. He taught at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

from 1956 until 2001. He served there as Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and was named Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor, "...the highest honor the Florida State faculty bestows upon one of its own." The chemistry wing of the science building at Loyola University is named for Choppin, and the Gregory R. Choppin Chair in Chemistry and Biochemistry is an endowed chair at Florida State University. Choppin is sometimes credited with co-discovering the elements einsteinium and fermium.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choppin, Gregory Robert 20th-century American chemists University of Texas at Austin alumni 1927 births 2015 deaths Loyola University New Orleans alumni Florida State University faculty 21st-century American chemists