Ken Gregorich

Gregorich studied chemistry at University of California, Berkeley, where he fell in love with superheavy element research, working under heavy-element pioneers Glenn Seaborg and Darleane Hoffman. After earning his doctor of philosophy, he spent the majority of his career working as a senior scientist in the Superheavy Element Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) until he was named leader of the group in 2014, a role he continued until his retirement in 2018. His research at LBNL was centered at the 88-inch Cyclotron, where he designed and installed the Berkeley Gas-Filled Separator, and led the team that was instrumental in the confirmation of the discoveries of the heaviest elements, including element 116, Livermorium. Following his retirement from LBNL, he missed the challenges of solving scientific problems, and returned to work part-time at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 2019, where he worked to develop unique detection and analysis technologies for the Superheavy Element program as well as other programs in the Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division in PLS.

He is survived by his wife and former LLNL employee Carola Gregorich, his three siblings, two stepchildren and three grandchildren.

A memorial fund has been created with the non-profit Runners for Public Lands (https://runnersforpubliclands.org). Any donations made in honor or in memory of Ken Gregorich are routed to a designated fund that will support scholarly projects and/or budding recreational runners during their educational phases.