Benson, Andy

Figure 2.1. shows four Caltech graduate students in the fall of 1941 racing on Lagima Beach John Hays, James F. Mead, Richard Newton Lewis, and Andy Benson. Andy Benson lived in the old graduate student dormitory for the first two quarters of the school year, as did I. 

Figure 2.1. Caltech graduate students racing on Laguna Beach, Fall 1941. Photograph supplied by Andy Benson.

Dr. Andrew Benson (Figure 2.1) was an Instructor in Chemistry at the University of California during 1942 and 1943, and he was a member of Ruben and Kamen s team for their pure research but was not a part of the war work. Quotation from a letter written by Andy Benson to me, March 3, 2001 ... 

To do the laboratory work on rats, Sam needed some phosgene. Although not on the NDRC project, Andy Benson, working in Sam s laboratory in the Rat House, provided phosgene for the rat ejq)eriments, as he described it ... 

On Sept. 19, 1943, Sam sent a letter to Andy Benson mentioning several aspects of their activities. 

Andy Benson contributed a large amount of insight to Chapter 3 and some written material. Andy was not employed in the NDRC projects, but he worked closely for two years with Sam Ruben on pioneering photosynthesis work and biochemical experiments with rats. 

Andy J. Tomlinson, Linda M. Benson, Norberto A. Guzman and... 

Their work attracted the attention of Ernest Lawrence, the founder and director of the Radiation Laboratory which was later to become pivotal in the Manhattan project and famous as a center for nuclear research and development. From his understanding of nuclear physics, Lawrence reasoned that there should exist a long-lived carbon isotope with a mass number of 14 which, if used as a tracer, would greatly aid such biochemical work. Early in 1940, in cans of ammonium nitrate solution used as a shield around Lawrence s cyclotron, Ruben and Kamen discovered 14C with a half-life of 5700 years. Minute though the quantities were, the two scientists, joined later by Andy Benson, began to use it in an exploration of the path of carbon in photosynthesis until the events of December 7,1941 put all such nonessential investigations on hold. 

Andy Benson obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. He subsequently joined the blo-organlc chemistry group at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley at what proved to be a very productive time. Together with Calvin and Bassham he was responsible for the complete elucidation of the pathway of carbon dioxide assimilation in photosynthesis. 

During the research on photosynthesis it is clear that Andy Benson noticed that in addition to the water soluble compounds labeled after the supply of radioactive carbon dioxide, lipid soluble compounds were also synthesized. When he moved to Pennsylvania State University in 1955, he turned his attention to these compounds. During the six years he spent at Pennsylvania State University Andy and his students made several important discoveries, including the isolation and characterization of both phosphatidylglycerol and sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol, two lipids we now know to be of particular significance in the chloroplast. No account of the chemistry and biochemistry of these compounds is complete without discussion of the results from Andy Benson s laboratory. 

Andy Benson has made a deep impression on research in plant lipids not only by the contributions from his own laboratory but also by fostering and encouraging the research in other laboratories. We hope that he will continue to inspire us for years to come. 

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