How many elements are named after the names of scientists?

There are 6 elements that have been named after the name of scientists.

Those elements named for famous scientists, none occur naturally; they are all products of nuclear reactions in the laboratory and are extremely rare.

Curium - Created artificially by particle bombardment of plutonium, curium is a radioactive element first produced in 1944. The element is named for radioactivity pioneers Pierre and Marie Curie.

Einsteinium - The highly radioactive metal einsteinium was first produced in the U.S. in 1952 and named after Albert Einstein, who developed many groundbreaking theories including the Special Theory of Relativity.

Mendelevium - First produced in 1955 mendelevium is a highly radioactive metallic element. It is produced by particle bombardment of einsteinium and was named after the compiler of the modern periodic table, Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev.

Fermium - In bombardment experiments on plutonium, the radioactive element fermium was discovered in the U.S. in 1952.Fermium gets its name from Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi who won the Nobel prize for Physics in 1938.

Bohrium - The radioactive element bohrium was first created in 1981. It was named after the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who helped develop important theories of the structure of atoms in the 1930s.

Lawrencium - Lawrencium was first produced in 1961. It is named after the inventor of the cyclotron particle accelerator, Ernest Lawrence.

More Info: sciencing.com

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15 Comments

John Moore

What elements are named after scientists? People bohrium (Niels Bohr), curium (Marie and Pierre Curie), einsteinium (Albert Einstein), fermium (Enrico Fermi), lawrencium (Ernest Lawrence), roentgenium (Wilhelm Röntgen), rutherfordium (Ernest Rutherford), seaborgium (Glenn T. Seaborg). Now don't get upset but the correct answer is 8 Unless you take into account the following: Of the 118 chemical elements, 19 are connected with the names of 20 people. 15 elements were named to honour 16 scientists. Four other elements have indirect connection to the names of non-scientists. Only gadolinium and samarium occur in nature; the rest are synthetic. In which case the correct answer is 15

Pat Askew

bohrium (Niels Bohr), curium (Marie and Pierre Curie), einsteinium (Albert Einstein), fermium (Enrico Fermi), lawrencium (Ernest Lawrence), roentgenium (Wilhelm Röntgen), rutherfordium (Ernest Rutherford), seaborgium (Glenn T. Seaborg). That adds up to 8 in my books! And you have one that isn't in my list, so that would make 9!

Skip Hayden

This is INCORRECT !! 8 elements have been named after scientists, not just 6

Susan McInnis Paradis

actually there are 15 named after scientists! try fact checking!

John Manley

15 elements were named to honour 16 scientists! - Curium after Marie and Pierre Curie - how can 6 possibly be a correct answer so far from the truth?

Cheryl Kirkness

Agree with previous posters, there are 8 elements named for scientists. Are these questions independently checked for accuracy - one suspects not!

Leanne Donnelly

of the 118 elements, 19 are connected with the names of 20 people. 15 elements were named to honor 16 scientists. To the author of this question, did you do your research? Or did you just pull some random number out of thin air!

Dino De Amicis

Very bad totally unresearched question and answer who vets these anyway?

Cheryl Dunn

15 are named after scientists.

Greg Sanza

Correct answer is actually 15!!

Stephen Knapp

The correct answer is 15 are named after scientists, only two of whom were women: Marie Curie and Lise Meitner are immortalized in curium and meitnerium. 18 elements have had placeholder names derived from the Latin for the elements atomic number (for example ununoctium, now oganesson). Check facts before posting questions, it is tiring to see wrong answers posted as correct!!!

David Farr

WRONG! There are currently 15 elements named to honor 16 scientists. Where did the author come up with only 6?

Pat Salloum

Here we have a question that seems to have created some controversy! Like that rarely happens!!

John McLardie

Question is so out-of-date it's not ordinary. There are 15 elements named after 16 scientists (Curium is named after both Pierre & Marie Curie). Question needs to be removed, or the options updated.