On the periodic table, nobelium was named after Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, and founder of the Nobel Prize. The element's name recognizes Nobel rather than describing a physical property.
Nobelium has atomic number Nobelium has atomic number 102 and is an actinide. It is synthetic and radioactive, so it is produced in particle accelerators and studied through the decay of very small numbers of atoms. Its chemical symbol is No.
The discovery history was disputed. A group at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna reported producing element 102 in 1966, while an earlier claim from the Nobel Institute in Stockholm was not accepted as definitive. The name nobelium was ultimately retained after the evidence was reassessed.