Edwin M. McMillan's first important discovery was made in 1940 when he, Philip Abelson, and Glenn T. Seaborg produced and identified samples of transuranium elements , later named neptunium and plutonium. After World War II McMillan became involved in the development of particle accelerators. Simultaneously with but independent of the Russian physicist V. I. Veksler, McMillan found a way to compensate for the relativistic mass increase that occurs in high energy accelerators. He won a share of the 1951 Nobel Prize for chemistry (with Seaborg) for his discovery of neptunium and a share of the 1963 Atoms for Peace Award (with Veksler) for his work on accelerators.

McMillan was born in Redondo Beach, California, on September 18, 1907. His father was Edwin Harbaugh McMillan, a physician, and his mother was Anna Marie Mattison. The McMillan family moved to Pasadena when Edwin was a year old. He attended local primary and secondary schools, graduating from...