Nobelium’s discovery was one of the most complicated processes with multiple claims by groups from Sweden, the United States, and Russia (the former Soviet Union). The first claim was announced in 1968 by physicists at the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1957. They proposed the name nobelium for the new element, which was immediately approved by the IUPAC, a decision Russia said was hasty. The second claim came in 1958 from scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The claims all revolved around the half-life of the isotope that was found. Sweden reported a half-life of 10 minutes; the United States reported approximately 3 seconds; and later in 1963, the Russians reported a half-life of approximately 50 seconds. The Russians were right.
While both the Swedish and US teams contributed valuable research, their experiments were ultimately clouded by background elements and misinterpretations. Finally, in 1994, the IUPAC credited the Russian team with the discovery, but ratified the name for element 102 on the basis that it was the name used in the literature for over 30 years. The element was originally named for Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist.