2019 Seaborg Award: Thomas E. Albrecht-Schmitt

Current position: Gregory R. Choppin Chair in Chemistry, Florida State University; director, Center for Actinide Science and Technology

Education: BS, chemistry, Southwest State University; MS and PhD, chemistry, Northwestern University

Albrecht-Schmitt on his biggest research challenge: “Some radioactive elements are only brief visitors to our labs, and capturing as much as we can about them before they transmute into a different guest or drastically alter their surroundings remains at the forefront of our endeavors. Overcoming these issues to document the first bulk syntheses, detailed characterization, and deep theoretical understanding of berkelium compounds and coordination complexes still tops the list of the toughest experiments my lab has performed.”

What his colleagues say: “Prior to Tom’s effort, I was convinced that one had to work within the Department of Energy laboratory system, where one could handle and manipulate reasonable quantities of radioactive materials, in order to successfully characterize and manipulate actinide complexes. With a battery of new synthetic approaches and microspectroscopic characterization, Tom has changed the way I think about this field and proven that academic researchers can still have a huge impact on this field.”—David L. Clark, Los Alamos National Laboratory

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