Chemical Element: curium

(Modern Latin: chemical element; named for Pierre and Marie Curie; radioactive metal)

Chemical-Element Information

Symbol: Cn
Atomic number: 96
Year discovered: 1944

Discovered by: Glenn Theodore Seaborg (1912-1999), American physicist, Ralph A. James, and Albert Ghiorso (born July 15, 1915) at the University of Chicago.


  • Curium was identified by Seaborg and others in 1944 as a result of helium ion bombardment of the plutonium isotope.
  • Three years later visible amounts of the hydroxide were isolated by Werner and Perlman.
  • In 1951, the same workers prepared curium in its elemental form for the first time.

Name in other languages:

French: curium

German: Curium

Italian: curio

Spanish: curio


Information about other elements may be seen at this Chemical Elements List.

A special unit about words that include chemo-, chem- may be seen here.