John Polanyi

John Charles Polanyi, PC, CC, O.Ont, FRSC, FRS ( born January 23, 1929 in Berlin ) is a Canadian born in Germany chemist and physicist of Hungarian descent and son of the scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi. Polanyi received in 1986 along with Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry " for his role concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes ."

Life

Polanyi and his family moved in 1933 to the UK and studied from 1946 ( the same year was there his father his last chemistry lecture and turned to philosophy ) at Manchester University, where he in 1949 a bachelor's degree earned and 1952 at a former pupil of his father, Ernest Warhurst, received his doctorate. As a post - graduate student he was then from 1952 to 1954 at the National Research Council Laboratories in Ottawa at Edgar William Richard Steacie and Gerhard Herzberg and 1954-1956 at Princeton University at the invitation of Hugh Taylor. In 1956 he became a lecturer at the University of Toronto, where he was an assistant professor in 1957, associate professor in 1960 and professor in 1962. Since 1974 he was there University professor.

Polanyi was - since he (TST ) in his time recognized the shortcomings of the Eyring theory in Ottawa - a pioneer in the detailed investigation of the mechanisms of chemical reactions developed by him and his students infrared chemiluminescence method. Around the same time studied Herschbach and his students and staff ( as Y. Lee), the chemical reaction mechanisms with the crossed molecular beam (crossed molecular beams ) method. Polanyi pursued by his students in parallel to the experimental method, the numerical computer simulation of chemical reactions.

In 1960 he also published in the Journal of Chemical Physics, early work on lasers (An infrared maser dependent on vibrational excitation) after the work was initially rejected by Physical Review Letters.

He was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1989. In 1965 he received the Centenary Medal from the British Chemical Society, 1982 Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1962 and the Marlow Medal of the Faraday Society. In 1974 he was Officer of the Order of Canada in 1979 and a Companion of the Order of Canada. 2012 Polanyi received the Helmholtz Medal of the Berlin- Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. He is a multiple honorary doctorates, including from Harvard, Manchester and the Weizmann Institute.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1978), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada (1966 ), the Royal Society (1971 ), the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Polanyi was also involved in disarmament issues and was a founding member of the Canadian Pugwash Group. In 1978, he led an international symposium on the threat of nuclear weapons.

He is married since 1958 with Sue Davidson, with whom he has a daughter and a son.

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