The element berkelium is named after the city of Berkeley, California.
Berkelium was first produced in December 1949 by Stanley Thompson, Albert Ghiorso, and Glenn Seaborg in the 60-inch cyclotron housed at the University of California at Berkeley’s Crocker Laboratory. They bombarded americium-241 with helium nuclei (alpha particles) for several hours in the cyclotron to synthesize tiny amounts of the radioactive metallic element.
The Crocker Laboratory was demolished in the 1960s to make way for new UC Berkeley campus buildings, and was situated where Tan Hall and Pimentel Hall stand today.
