Named in honour of Heino Nitsche (24 July 1949, Munich, Germany - 15 July 2014, Oakland, California, USA), German-American nuclear chemist, "for his work on nuclear and radiochemistry of heavy elements, nuclear forensics, the chemistry of irradiated materials, and the confirmation of elements 114 (flerovium, Fl) and 117 (Tennessine, Ts)." He was a professor at the University of California, Berkley and a researcher at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory.