- John Charles Polanyi
John Charles Polanyi,, (in Hungarian Polányi János) PC, CC, FRSC, FRS (born
January 23 ,1929 ) is a Hungarian-Canadianchemist .He was born in
Berlin , son of distinguished Hungarian chemistMichael Polanyi and Magda Elizabeth Polanyi, and nephew of influential economistKarl Polanyi . The family moved toEngland in 1933 where Polanyi studied atManchester Grammar School and theUniversity of Manchester – his father's workplace – achieving hisdoctorate in 1952. Emigrating to Canada in 1952, he worked for theNational Research Council of Canada before moving to theUniversity of Toronto in 1956, where he has been University Professor since 1974 and was a founding Senior Fellow ofMassey College .He is a member of the
Queen's Privy Council for Canada , having been sworn in on July 1, 1992. In 1974 he was made an Officer of theOrder of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1979. Polanyi is also a 'Pugwashite'.Through development of the technique of
infrared chemiluminescence he developed the understanding ofchemical kinetics .He also won the 1986
Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly withYuan T. Lee andDudley R. Herschbach "for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes."In 1986, in honor of the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the government of Ontario created the "John Charles Polanyi Prizes", which are awarded annually to Ontario based researchers of outstanding merit. The prizes are given in the same subjects as the Nobel prizes that inspired them and are each worth $20,000: [http://ocgs.cou.on.ca/_bin/home/polanyi.cfm]
In 2004 John Charles Polanyi married the portrait artist Brenda Bury [http://www.brendabury.com] .
In 2005, Canada's
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council created the John C. Polanyi Award, acknowledging excellence in Canadian science or engineering. [http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051018-1712.asp]In 2007 he was awarded Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, the Canada's highest research honor.
External links
* [http://www.utoronto.ca/jpolanyi/ Official website]
* [http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1986/polanyi-bio.html Biography at Nobel e-Museum]
* [http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=1357 Order of Canada Citation]
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