Chemical Element: lawrencium

(Modern Latin: chemical element; named for Ernest Lawrence, an American physicist and inventor of the cyclotron; radioactive metal)

Chemical-Element Information

Symbol: Lr
Atomic number: 103
Year discovered: 1961

Discovered by: Albert Ghiorso (born July 15, 1915), Torbjorn Sikkeland, Almon Larsh, and Robert M. Latimer; discovered at the Radiation Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley.


  • The discoverers proposed that the new element be named “lawrencium” in honor of Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901-1958), physicist and inventor of the cyclotron, a device for accelerating nuclear particles to high speeds.
  • Dr. Lawrence was director (1936 onward) of the Radiation Laboratory, where this and so many other transuranium elements were discovered.
  • He was an authority on nuclear, biological, and medical physics.
  • Lawrencium is a synthetic “rare earth metal” which does not occur in the environment.
  • Lawrencium is a synthetic chemical element which is not found in nature.

Name in other languages:

French: lawrencium

German: Lawrencium

Italian: lawrentio

Spanish: lawrencio


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.