Seaborg Named to Panel Setting Academic Standards

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Glenn T. Seaborg was appointed Wednesday by Gov. Pete Wilson to fill a vacancy on the state panel developing academic standards in science and other subjects for California schools.

Seaborg was among a group of scientists who volunteered last November to help the Commission for the Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards write the science standards for free. That offer was initially rejected, but earlier this month the commission agreed to accept the scientists’ assistance--as well as that of a competing group composed largely of education professors.

On Wednesday, Seaborg was named to head the standards commission’s science committee, meaning he will play a central role in writing those standards.

Seaborg, who chaired the Atomic Energy Commission from 1961 to 1971, is associate director of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and chairman of the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. His scientific achievements include the co-discovery of plutonium and several other transuranium elements, one of which--Seaborgium--is named for him.