Melvin Calvin

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Melvin Calvin
Melvin Calvin 1960s.jpg
Born Melvin Ellis Calvin
April 8, 1911
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Berkeley, California, USA
Nationality United States
Fields Chemistry · Biology
Institutions University of Manchester
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley Radiation Laboratory
Science Advisory Committee
Alma mater Michigan College of Mining and Technology
University of Minnesota
Academic advisors Michael Polanyi
Known for Calvin cycle
Notable awards Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1961)
Davy Medal (1964)
Priestley Medal (1978)
AIC Gold Medal (1979)
National Medal of Science (1989)[1]
Spouse Genevieve Elle Jemtegaard (m. 1942; 3 children) (d.1987)

Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1911 – January 8, 1997)[2] was an American chemist most famed for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham, for which he was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He spent most of his five-decade career at the University of California, Berkeley.

Life

Calvin was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of Elias Calvin and Rose Herwitz,[3] Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father was born in Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire) and his mother in Georgia (also part of the Russian Empire).

As a small child Calvin's family moved to Detroit; he graduated from Central High School in 1928.[4] Melvin Calvin earned his Bachelor of Science from the Michigan College of Mining and Technology (now known as Michigan Technological University) in 1931 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1935. He then spent the next four years doing postdoctoral work at the University of Manchester. He married Marie Genevieve Jemtegaard in 1942,[3] and they had three children, two daughters and a son.

Calvin joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1937 and was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 1947. Using the carbon-14 isotope as a tracer, Calvin, Andrew Benson and James Bassham mapped the complete route that carbon travels through a plant during photosynthesis, starting from its absorption as atmospheric carbon dioxide to its conversion into carbohydrates and other organic compounds.[5][6] In doing so, Calvin, Benson and Bassham showed that sunlight acts on the chlorophyll in a plant to fuel the manufacturing of organic compounds, rather than on carbon dioxide as was previously believed. Calvin was the sole recipient of the 1961 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for what is sometimes known as the Calvin-Benson-Bassham Cycle. Calvin wrote an autobiography three decades later titled Following the Trail of Light: A Scientific Odyssey.[7] During the 1950s he was among the first members of the Society for General Systems Research. In 1963 he was given the additional title of Professor of Molecular Biology. He was founder and Director of the Laboratory of Chemical Biodynamics and simultaneously Associate Director of Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, where he conducted much of his research until his retirement in 1980. In his final years of active research, he studied the use of oil-producing plants as renewable sources of energy. He also spent many years testing the chemical evolution of life and wrote a book on the subject that was published in 1969.[8]

Controversy

In his 2011 television history of Botany for the BBC, Timothy Walker, Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, criticised Calvin's treatment of Andrew Benson, claiming that Calvin had got the credit for Benson's work after firing him, and had failed to mention Benson's role when writing his autobiography decades later.[9] Benson himself has also mentioned being fired by Calvin, and has complained about not being mentioned in his autobiography.[10]

Legacy

Calvin was featured on the 2011 volume of the American Scientists collection of US postage stamps, along with Asa Gray, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and Severo Ochoa. This was the third volume in the series, the first two having been released in 2005 and 2008.

Publications

See also

References

  1. National Science Foundation – The President's National Medal of Science
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. 3.0 3.1 http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf
  4. http://www.bookrags.com/biography/melvin-calvin/
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. Calvin, Melvin. Chemical evolution: molecular evolution towards the origin of living systems on the earth and elsewhere. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969. ISBN 0-19-855342-0.
  9. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links