Considering the challenges that come with an increasing worldwide energy demand, a heightened awareness to climate changes, and the need for carbon-neutral fuel sources, research in actinide sciences is timely and crucial. Both fundamental and applied questions remain, including understanding bonding motifs with organic ligands, the generation of new fuels, recycling and environmental remediation of nuclear wastes and polluted sites, and the synthesis of new materials for chemical transformations and catalysis. Accordingly, research in the field of actinide chemistry has the potential not only for significant scientific but social and economic impacts. Over the last nine years, my research program has focused on making strides towards these challenges by focusing on understanding the fundamental chemistry of depleted uranium, and more recently, thorium and the transuranic elements. Our overall goal is to raise the understanding of the chemistry of uranium and it's neighbors with respect to organometallic, multi-electron processes, and bonding to be equal to that of its transition metal counterparts.