Sir

In a letter that I received inviting me to become a 'Consulting Fellow' for the World Innovation Foundation, I discovered (amid considerable other hyperbole) that some honours are so great as to defy accurate description.

Glenn Seaborg was founding president of the World Innovation Foundation, so it was only fitting that the letter should try to capture the significance of his achievements and his stature as a person: “As one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and the only person ever in the history of the world to be named after one of the Universe's Elements (Element 106 Seaborgium) whilst still living, [Nobel Laureate Glenn Theodore Seaborg] has left a huge scientific legacy for us all.”

Glenn's parents must have been unusually prescient. Fortunately, the website (http://www.ineed.easynet.co.uk/wif/mainmembers.html) has it right, so only those of us honoured with an invitation letter might have momentarily mused over the order of events.