Ghiorso

Ghiorso is a surname of Italian origin. It is likely a patronymic form derived from Giorgio, the Italian version of George, and is found in Italian and Italian-American communities. The spelling with the letter combination gh and the h after g is characteristic of some Italian names and their transliterations in the United States.

Albert Ghiorso (1922–2010) was an American nuclear chemist and longtime staff member at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Working with the Berkeley group under the direction of Glenn T. Seaborg, Ghiorso participated in the discovery and characterization of several transuranium elements in the mid-20th century. His work helped establish experimental techniques for synthesizing and identifying short-lived isotopes and contributed to the identification of elements in the late 1940s through the 1960s, including berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, and lawrencium. The discoveries expanded the known periodic table and advanced understanding of heavy-element chemistry and nuclear physics.

The surname Ghiorso remains associated primarily with Albert Ghiorso in historical and scientific contexts, though it may appear in records and families across the Italian diaspora.