John C. Polanyi

John C. Polanyi (b. 1929 in Berlin) is University Professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Dudley R. Herschbach (b. 1932), Yuan T. Lee (b. 1936), and John Polanyi received jointly the chemistry 1986 Nobel Prize for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes.  

The location of the conversation with John Polanyi, on Tuesday, August 1, 1995, was his quiet office but his schedule was hectic. The interview is augmented here by the brief speech he gave at the Stockholm City Hall on the occasion of the Nobel Prize award ceremonies in December, 1986.  

Lefs jump in the middle. What s the relationship between reaction dynamics and molecular structure  

People laughed, because that was how Dudley Herschbach, Yuan Lee, myself, and many others in the dynamics community routinely began our lectures. 

Does the reaction dynamics approach now extend to complicated molecules  

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LEE, YUAN T. (1936-). Awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 19X6 jointly with John C. Polanyi and Dudley R. Herschbach for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes. A former student of Herschbach. Lee relined molecular-beam and laser techniques, comhining them with theory to perform definitive studies of reactions of individual complex molecules. Lee received his Doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1965. 

Huzinaga was the recipient of the 1994 John C. Polanyi Award of the Canadian Society for Chemistry. In his award lecture he described his model potential method, which deals only with the active electrons in molecular and solid state calculations. An invited review article,59 based on his 1994 Polanyi Award lecture, chronicles his efforts to develop a sound theoretical framework for the core-valence separation of electrons, a problem Van Vleck and Sherman60 once referred to as the nightmare of the inner core. ... 

From the many readings available about Polanyi s life and scientific career two are recommended herein one is written by Eugen P. Wigner (1902-1995, Nobel Prize 1963) who was Polanyi s student in Berlin in the 1920s and lifelong friend [vi], and the other by his son John C. Polanyi (1929-, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986) who continued the family tradition regarding the study of reaction dynamics [vii]. Additional information on Polanyi can be found on the Polanyi Society home-page [viii]. See also Polanyi s rule. 

Nobel Banquet, Stockholm, December 10, 1986 by John C. Polanyi... 

John C. Polanyi (1929- ) was born in Berlin to parents of Hungarian descent. His father, Michael Polanyi, developed transition state theory (see chapter 4) and also studied collisions between alkali metals and halogen molecules. The Polanyi family left Germany in 1933 for England where John received his education. He joined the University of Toronto in 1956 and used IR chemiluminescence, pioneered by his father, to study molecular collisions. In 1986, Dudley R. Herschhach, Yuan T. Lee, and John C. Polanyi shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the contributions to reaction dynamics. 

Raymond E. March, PhD, DSc, D(hc), FCIC, is presently Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Trent University in Peterborough, ON, Canada. He obtained a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from Leeds University in 1957 a PhD from the University of Toronto in 1961 (supervised by Professor John C. Polanyi, 2 Nobelist 1986) a DSc from Leeds University... 

The American Council on Science and Health, New York, New York, USA John C. Polanyi, PhD... 

Dudley R. Herschbach, Yuan T. Lee, John C. Polanyi 1929 Arthur Harden, Hans von Euler-Chelpin... 

If Polanyi had worked on in the field of physical chemistry it would have resulted in a Nobel Prize in chemistry as a recognition of his achievements in reaction kinetics including electrode processes. It is noteworthy that his son, John C. Polanyi (Fig. 12.17) continued the work and received the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes. The influence of M. Polanyi on his son and evidently oti many researches including us, electrochemists, is stiU enormous. 

The words of John C. Polanyi about his father adequately express it I can attest, however, that he sensed this to be a powerful insight into the mechanism of chemical reactions, since he tried, gently but insistently, to persuade me to make it the subject of my research. Like most of the young, I only heard his voice much later. I am, it would seem, among a number who continue to hear it. ... 

Nowadays, there is a tendency to define the transition state more broadly. The definition of the transition state (TS) used recently by John C. Polanyi and Ahmed H. ZewaiP is the full family of configurations through which the reacting particles evolve en route from reactants to products. They believe that this definition of the TS (usual symbol, displayed at the crest of the energy barrier to reaction) is likely to prove most enduring. 

John C. Polanyi, son of the famous chemist M. Polanyi, bom in Berlin in 1929, professor at the University of Toronto, shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for chemistry with Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist, and Yuan T. Lee, Taiwanese-American chemist, for their contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes Ahmed Zewail, born in Egypt, professor of chemical physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, obtained the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1999 for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy. 

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