This collection marks the 150th anniversary of Dmitri Mendeleev’s discovery of the Periodic Table of Elements.

The Physical Review journals have published many papers reporting on the discovery and validation of the transuranium elements—elements having an atomic number, Z, greater than that of uranium (Z=92). With 2019 being declared the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, the editors of the Physical Review journals have created a Collection of these papers, making those published in the Physical Review currently free to read.

The discovery of an element is not a simple task and many times cannot be attributed to a single scientific effort. The papers contained in this Collection were given credit by IUPAC for providing convincing evidence of discovery.