Wendell Meredith Stanley

Infobox_Scientist
name = Wendell Meredith Stanley


image_size = 180px
birth_date = birth date|1904|8|16
birth_place = Ridgeville, Indiana, USA
death_date = death date and age|1971|6|15|1904|8|16
death_place = Salamanca, Spain
nationality = United States
field = Chemistry
alma_mater = Earlham College
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
work_institution = Rockefeller Institute
University of California, Berkeley
known_for =
prizes = Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1946)

Wendell Meredith Stanley (August 16, 1904 &ndash; June 15, 1971) was an American biochemist, virologist and Nobel prize laureate [cite journal | quotes = no | last=Colvig | first=R | authorlink= | year=1972 | month=Feb | title=Wendell M, STANLEY, PhD, (1905-1971) | journal=Cancer | volume=29 | issue=2 | pages=541–2 | pmid = 4552137 | doi=10.1002/1097-0142(197202)29:2<541::AID-CNCR2820290246>3.0.CO;2-T] .

Biography

Stanley was born in Ridgeville, Indiana, and earned a BS in Chemistry at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. He then studied at the University of Illinois, gaining an MS in science in 1927 followed by a Ph.D. in chemistry two years later. His later accomplishments include writing the book "Chemistry: A Beautiful Thing" and achieving his high stature as a Pulitzer Prize nominee.

Research

As a member of National Research Council he moved temporarily for academic work with Heinrich Wieland in Munich before he returned to the States in 1931. On return he was approved as an assistant at Rockefeller Institute, the post he held until 1948. He later became Professor of Biochemistry at University of California, Berkeley, and in 1958 Chairman of the Biochemistry Department.

Stanley's work contributed to on lepracidal compounds, diphenyl stereochemistry and the chemistry of the sterols. His researches on the virus causing the mosaic disease in tobacco plants led to the isolation of a nucleoprotein which displayed tobacco mosaic virus activity.

Stanley was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1946. His other notable awards included the Rosenburger Medal, Alder Prize, Scott Award, and the AMA Scientific Achievement Award. He was also awarded honorary degrees by many universities both American and foreign, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and the University of Paris. Most of the conclusions Stanley had presented in his Nobel-winning research were soon shown to be incorrect (in particular, that the crystals of mosaic virus he had isolated were pure protein, and assembled by autocatalysis). [cite journal | quotes = no | last=Pennazio | first=S | authorlink= | coauthors=Roggero P | year= | month= | title=The discovery of the chemical nature of tobacco mosaic virus | journal=Riv. Biol. | volume=93 | issue=2 | pages=253–81 | pmid = 11048483 ] [cite journal | quotes = no | last=Kay | first=L E | authorlink= | year=1986 | month=Sep | title=W. M. Stanley's crystallization of the tobacco mosaic virus, 1930-1940 | journal=Isis; an international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences | volume=77 | issue=288 | pages=450–72 | | pmid = 3533840]

Personal life

Stanley married Marian Staples in 1929 and had three daughters (Marjorie, Dorothy and Janet), and a son, Wendell M. Junior. Stanley Hall at UC Berkeley (now Stanley Biosciences and Bioengineering Facility) and Stanley Hall at Earlham College are named in his honor.

References

External links

* Wendell's [http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1946/stanley-bio.html Nobel Foundation biography]
* Wendell's Nobel Lecture [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1946/stanley-lecture.html The Isolation and Properties of Crystalline Tobacco Mosaic Virus]
* [http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume1/issue2/legacy.php Wendell Meredith Stanley and the birth of biochemistry at UC Berkeley]

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1926-1950