Dr. Oganessian Makes His Name in Heavy Metals on the Periodic Table

The five-month window was meant to give the public a chance to make suggestions or raise concerns about the element names, considering these names will be used around the world, in many languages, Cleveland Evans, a professor of psychology who studies names and naming at Bellevue University in Nebraska and chairs the Name of the Year committee for the American Name Society, told Live Science in June.

The name oganesson, for element 118, honors Yuri Oganessian “for his pioneering contributions to transactinide elements research,” IUPAC officials said, referring to elements with atomic numbers 104 through 120. “His many achievements include the discovery of super-heavy elements and significant advances in the nuclear physics of super-heavy nuclei, including experimental evidence for the ‘island of stability,’” an idea suggesting that super-heavy elements can become stable at some point in their existence.

Though there is no certain limit for the number of protons that can be stuffed into an atomic nucleus, the higher the number, the more unstable the element, chemists say. Now that the seventh row (called a period) of the periodic table has been completed with element 118, according to the IUPAC, chemists will continue to search for heavier elements beyond that.

“The names of the new elements reflect the realities of our present time,” said IUPAC President Prof. Natalia Tarasova, “universality of science, honoring places from three continents, where the elements have been discovered — Japan, Russia, the United States — and the pivotal role of human capital in the development of science, honoring an outstanding scientist — Professor Yuri Oganessian.”

He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Physics, Nuclear Physics News International, Il Nuovo Cimento, Physics of Elementary Particles and Atomic Nuclei, and Particle Accelerators, as well on the scientific counsels of GANIL (France), RIKEN (Japan) and FAIR (Germany). He is a foreign member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the National Academy of Science of Armenia, as well as an Honorary Doctor of Goethe University in Germany and the University of Messina in Italy. The proposed names seem to have sailed through unscathed, though that doesn’t mean interest was lacking.

“Overall, it was a real pleasure to realize that so many people are interested in the naming of the new elements, including high-school students, making essays about possible names and telling how proud they were to have been able to participate in the discussions,” Jan Reedijk, president of the IUPAC’s Inorganic Chemistry Division, said in a statement. “It is a long process from initial discovery to the final naming, and IUPAC is thankful for the cooperation of everyone involved. For now, we can all cherish our periodic table completed down to the seventh row.”