Elements Old and New ― Discoveries, Developments, Challenges, and Environmental Implications

The Periodic Table of the Elements remains a living, growing document that attempts to map out all of the most primal matter known to humankind. This book preserves our current knowledge and understanding of the Periodic Table of the Elements as it exists at this specific moment in time. The heavy elements have recently been verified and named, and thus complete the seventh row of the Periodic Table, with oganesson being the name of the final element, which had formerly been known as Element 118 or Eka-radon. One can say honestly that it is a rare moment in time when a row of the Periodic Table of the Elements is completed.

Mark Benvenuto is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Detroit Mercy, in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He has also been an advisor to the UDM ACS Student Members Chapter for many years. Benvenuto received a B.S. in chemistry from the Virginia Military Institute and, after several years in the Army, a PhD. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Virginia. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Pennsylvania State University, he joined the faculty at the University of Detroit Mercy in 1993.

Tracy Williamson received her B.A. in chemistry in 1985 from Hamilton College and her Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1992 from the University of Delaware. Tracy is currently the immediate past chair of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Environmental Chemistry and is a member of the ACS Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology, and Symbols. She is a fellow of the American Chemical Society and was formerly a member of the ACS Committee on Environmental Improvement. Tracy is currently the Chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.