John Polanyi

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The native form of this personal name is Polányi János Károly. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Germany
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Manchester
Known forChemical kinetics
Reaction dynamics
Parents
RelativesKarl Polanyi (uncle)
Awards
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto
Websitesites.utoronto.ca/jpolanyi
John Polanyi Collegiate Institute, Toronto

John Charles Polanyi PC CC FRSC OOnt FRS (Hungarian: Polányi János Károly; born 23 January 1929) is a German-born Canadian chemist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in chemical kinetics.

Polanyi was born into the prominent Hungarian Polányi (Pollacsek) family in

National Research Council in Canada and Princeton University in New Jersey. Polanyi's first academic appointment was at the University of Toronto, and he remains there as of 2019
.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Polanyi has received numerous other awards, including 33 honorary degrees, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. Outside his scientific pursuits, Polanyi is active in public policy discussion, especially concerning science and nuclear weapons. His father, Mihály (Michael), was a noted chemist and philosopher. His uncle, Károly (Karl) was a renowned political economist, best known for his seminal work, The Great Transformation.[2] According to György Marx, he was one of "The Martians", a group of prominent Hungarian scientists who emigrated to the United States in the first half of the 20th century.[3]

Education

Polanyi's family moved from

Edgar William Richard Steacie.[8] From 1954 until 1956, he was a research associate at Princeton University.[6]

Academic posts

John Polanyi started at the University of Toronto as a lecturer in 1956. He moved up the ranks quickly at the university, being promoted to assistant professor in 1957, associate professor in 1960 and becoming a full professor in 1962. In 1975, he was named University Professor, an honorary title he has retained since.[6]

Research interests

Polanyi's PhD studies at Manchester University focused on measuring the strengths of

National Research Council (NRC), Polanyi evaluated transition state theory for its predictive powers, coming to the conclusion that the theory was flawed, largely due to a lack of knowledge about the forces at play in the transition state.[8] Near the end of his stay at NRC, Polanyi worked in Gerhard Herzberg's lab, using spectroscopy to examine vibrational and rotational excitation in iodine molecules.[8] During Polanyi's time at Princeton University, he worked with Sir Hugh Taylor and his colleagues, Michael Boudart and David Garvin. He was influenced by studies conducted at Princeton looking at the vibrationally excited reaction products between atomic hydrogen and ozone.[8]

When Polanyi moved to the

exothermic reaction of molecular chlorine with atomic hydrogen.[8] Graduate student Kenneth Cashion was working with Polanyi when they made their first discoveries about chemiluminescence, the light emitted by an atom molecule when it is in an excited state. This work was first published in 1958.[9]

In 2009, Polanyi and his colleagues published a paper in Nature Chemistry, entitled "Molecular dynamics in surface reactions."[10] This more recent research could be influential in nanotechnology, building devices from single atoms and molecules.[11] Polanyi's work still focuses on the basic workings of chemical reactions, but since his Nobel Prize win in 1986, his methods have changed. While in Sweden for the award ceremony, he encountered the three scientists who were awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics, who were honoured for their work in electron optics and scanning tunneling microscopy.[12] This technology allowed Polanyi and his colleagues to monitor chemical reactions on a very small scale, rather than observing the energy being released using infrared technology. His lab at the University of Toronto currently has 4 scanning tunneling microscopes, valued at approximately $750,000 each.[11]

In addition to his scientific pursuits, Polanyi has also always been keenly aware of the world at large. As a student, he edited a newspaper and displayed an interest in politics.

nuclear weapons.[8] He founded Canada's Pugwash group in 1960, and served as the chairman for the group from its inception until 1978.[8] Pugwash is a global movement that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. Their goal is to reduce armed conflict and seek solutions to global problems.[13] He has also been a supporter of "pure" science, and a critic of government policies that do not support such research.[9] He is also a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system.[14] Polanyi often accepts speaking engagements to discuss issues relating to social justice, peace and nuclear proliferation, despite his busy research schedule.[11] He frequently comments on science and public policy issues via the Letters to the Editor and Opinion sections of The Globe and Mail newspaper.[15][16][17] He currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the research arm of Council for a Livable World.[18]

Awards and honours

Nobel Prize

Polanyi was awarded the 1986

Dudley Herschbach of Harvard University and Yuan T. Lee of the University of California. The trio were honoured for "their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes."[19] Polanyi's contributions were centred around the work he did developing the technique of infrared chemiluminescence. This technique was used to measure weak infrared emissions from a newly formed molecule in order to examine energy disposal during a chemical reaction.[19] Polanyi's Nobel lecture upon receipt of the award was entitled "Some Concepts in Reaction Dynamics."[20]

Polanyi had mixed feelings about the impact of the Nobel Prize on his research, feeling that his name on research proposals and papers often brought additional scrutiny, and also had people questioning his dedication to science after the honour. Polanyi said, "There is a very reasonable suspicion that you are so busy doing the things that Nobel Prize winners do that you are actually only giving half your mind to science."[11]

His Nobel victory also signaled a change in his research direction. The 1986

scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM).[12] This research piqued Polanyi's interest while he was in Sweden for the ceremony. After returning to Toronto, Polanyi and his colleagues looked into the technique and now have four STMs, which they use to picture chemical reactions at the molecular level, rather than using infrared detection and chemiluminescence.[11]

Polanyi's Nobel medal is on display at

Massey College
(University of Toronto) where he is also a Senior Fellow.

Additional awards

He was elected a

Canadian Society for Chemistry in 1992.[6] In 2007, Polanyi was awarded the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering.[22] The Royal Society of Chemistry honoured Polanyi as their 2010 Faraday Lectureship Prize.[23]

Polanyi has received many honorary degrees from 25 institutions, including

U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry of the United Kingdom and the Chemical Institute of Canada.[6]

Polanyi was pictured on a Canada Post first class postage stamp on 3 October 2011, issued to salute the International Year of Chemistry. In 1992, Polanyi was appointed to the Queen's Privy Council of Canada.[24]

Polanyi was awarded the 2022 Andrei Sakharov Prize. The award cites Polanyi's seven decades of activism for a nuclear-weapons-free world, for upholding human rights and freedom of speech globally, for public education on the essential role of science in society, and for a visionary approach to bringing about a hopeful, peaceful future.[25]

Legacy

In honour of Polanyi's Nobel Prize win, the Ontario government established the "John Charles Polanyi Prizes". These prizes are each worth $20,000, and are awarded to young researchers in the province in a postdoctoral fellowship or who have recently started a faculty appointment at an Ontario university. The prizes are awarded in similar categories to the Nobel Prizes, broadly defined as: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Economics and Literature.[26]

Canada's

Victoria M. Kaspi, an astrophysicist at McGill University.[29]

Polanyi started publishing his scientific research in 1953. As of 2010, he has published over 250 scientific papers.[30] His writing is not limited to his scientific interests, as he has published over 100 articles on policy, the impact of science on society and armament control.[6] In 1970, he produced a film entitled Concepts in Reaction Dynamics, and he co-edited a book called The Dangers of Nuclear War.[6]

In 2010, the

Sir Sandford Fleming Academy to the John Polanyi Collegiate Institute to coincide with a move to a new location. The new school opened in September 2011.[13]

Personal life

Polanyi was born in 1929 to

Christian
.

In 1958, Polanyi married Anne Ferrar Davidson (1929–2013).[31] He has two children – a daughter, Margaret, born in 1961 and a son, Michael, born in 1963.[6] His daughter is a journalist, and his son is a political scientist who started his career as a physicist.[8] Polanyi is currently married to portrait artist Brenda Bury.[32] Outside his scientific and policy endeavours, Polanyi's interests include art, literature and poetry. He was an avid white water canoeist in his younger days, but has replaced that with walking and skiing.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Fellowship of the Royal Society 1660–2015". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 15 October 2015.
  2. ^ "Polanyi Biography at Nobel e-Museum".
  3. ^ György Marx. "A MARSLAKOK LEGENDAJA". Fizikai Szemle 1997/3. szám (in Hungarian).
  4. ^
    S2CID 144091082
    .
  5. ^ a b c "John Charles Polanyi". GCS Research Society. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "John C. Polanyi – Biography". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  7. ^ Andersson, Erin; McIlroy, Anne (2 May 2009). "Is Canada losing the lab-rat race?". The Globe and Mail. p. F1.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "John C. Polanyi Official Website, Killiam Biography". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  9. ^ a b c d "Polanyi, John Charles". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 3 January 2006. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  10. PMID 21124358
    .
  11. ^ a b c d e Hall, Joseph (21 November 2009). "Not resting on his (Nobel) laurels "; 'I still dream science,' says 1986 chemistry Prize winner John Polanyi who's now tackling nanotechnology". Toronto Star. p. GT1.
  12. ^ a b "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1986". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  13. ^ a b "John Polanyi CI to provide exciting opportunities for Lawrence Heights students". Toronto District School Board. 17 December 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  14. ^ "Supporters". Campaign for a UN Parliamentary Assembly. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
  15. ^ Polanyi, John (14 April 2010). "Nuclear Security". The Globe and Mail. p. A18.
  16. ^ Polanyi, John (7 December 2010). "Freedom, indivisible". The Globe and Mail. p. A20.
  17. ^ Polanyi, John (31 January 2010). "The solemn quest for 'global zero'". The Globe and Mail. p. A17.
  18. ^ "Board". Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  19. ^ a b "Press Release: The 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  20. ^ "Some Concepts in Reaction Dynamics" (PDF). The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  21. ^ Order of Canada citation
  22. ^ "2007 Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering". Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  23. ^ "Faraday Lectureship Prize Winner 2010". Royal Society of Chemistry. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  24. ^ "Privy Council Office". 4 December 2017. Archived from the original on 15 February 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  25. ^ "2022 Andrei Sakharov Prize Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  26. ^ "John Charles Polanyi Awards". Ontario Council of Graduate Studies. Archived from the original on 6 January 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  27. ^ "NSERC – John C. Polanyi Award – About the Award". Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  28. ^ "2006 NSERC John C. Polanyi Award". Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  29. ^ "NSERC John C. Polanyi Award". Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
  30. ^ "Publications". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  31. ^ "In Memory of Anne (Sue) Polanyi". Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  32. ^ "Brenda Bury's biography". Brenda Bury. Retrieved 31 March 2011.

External links

  • Quotations related to John Polanyi at Wikiquote
  • John Polanyi on Nobelprize.org Edit this at Wikidata including the Nobel Lecture, 8 December 1986 Some Concepts in Reaction Dynamics
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Polanyi&oldid=1188149631"