Lawrencium

Lawrencium was discovered by A. Ghiorso, T. Sikkeland, A.E. Larsh, and R.M. Latimer at Berkeley University in March 1961 by bombarding a mixture of californium atoms with boron ions. At first they assigned the atoms as ²⁵⁷Lr, but after Flerov and associates at Dubna Laboratory were unable to detect the isotope as described by emission and half-life, the assignment was changed to either ²⁵⁸Lr or ²⁵⁹Lr [2].

Named after Ernest O. Lawrence [2]. The name was finalized in 1997 [4]. Originally lawrencium was abbreviated Lw [3].