Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1911 – January 8, 1997) was an American biochemist known for discovering the Calvin cycle along with Andrew Benson and James Bassham. He was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants". He spent most of his five-decade career at the University of California, Berkeley.

Early life and education

Melvin Calvin was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the son of Elias Calvin and Rose Herwitz, Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire (now known as Lithuania and Georgia).

At an early age, Melvin Calvin’s family moved to Detroit, Michigan where his parents ran a grocery store to earn their living. Melvin Calvin was often found satisfying his curiosity by looking through all of the products that made up their shelves.

After he graduated from Central High School in 1928, he went on to study at Michigan College of Mining and Technology (now known as Michigan Technological University) where he received the school’s first Bachelors of Science in Chemistry. He went on to earn his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1935. While under the mentorship of George Glocker, he studied and wrote his thesis on the electron affinity of halogens. He was invited to join the lab of Michael Polanyi as a Post Doctoral student at the University of Manchester. The two years he spent at the lab were focused on studying the structure and behavior of organic molecules. In 1942, He married Marie Genevieve Jemtegaard,

Career

On a visit to the University of Manchester, Joel Hildebrand, the director of UC Radiation Laboratory, invited Calvin to join the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. This made him the first non-Berkeley graduate hired by the chemistry department in +25 years. He invited Calvin to push forward in radioactive carbon research because "now was the time". The process is part of the photosynthesis cycle. It was given the name the Calvin–Benson–Bassham Cycle, named for the work of Melvin Calvin, Andrew Benson, and James Bassham. There were many people who contributed to this discovery but ultimately Melvin Calvin led the charge (see below).

In 1963, Calvin was given the additional title of Professor of Molecular Biology. He was founder and Director of the Laboratory of Chemical Biodynamics, known as the “Roundhouse”, and simultaneously Associate Director of Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, where he conducted much of his research until his retirement in 1980. In his final years of active research, he studied the use of oil-producing plants as renewable sources of energy. He also spent many years testing the chemical evolution of life and wrote a book on the subject that was published in 1969.

The foundation of the Melvin Calvin laboratory

The circular laboratory known as the “Roundhouse”  was designed to facilitate collaboration between students and visiting scientists in Calvin’s lab. Benson himself has also mentioned being fired by Calvin, and has complained about not being mentioned in his autobiography.

Honours and legacy

1954 - Elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences

1955 - Awarded the Centenary Prize

1958 - Elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

1958 - Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

1959 - Elected a Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

1960 - Elected to the American Philosophical Society

1961 - Melvin Calvin received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants”

1964 - Awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society

1971 - Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from Whittier College

1978 - Priestley medal of the American Chemical Society

Calvin was featured on the 2011 volume of the American Scientists collection of US postage stamps, along with Asa Gray, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and Severo Ochoa. This was the third volume in the series, the first two having been released in 2005 and 2008.

Calvin was award 13 other honorary degrees.

Publications

  • Bassham, J. A., Benson, A. A., and Calvin, M. "The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis VIII. The Role of Malic Acid.", Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory–Berkeley, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (January 25, 1950).
  • Badin, E. J., and Calvin, M. "The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis IX. Photosynthesis, Photoreduction, and the Hydrogen-Oxygen-Carbon Dioxide Dark Reaction.", Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory–Berkeley, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (February 1, 1950).
  • Calvin, M., Bassham, J. A., Benson, A. A., Kawaguchi, S., Lynch, V. H., Stepka, W., and Tolbert, N. E."The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis XIV.", Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory–Berkeley, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (June 30, 1951).
  • Calvin, M. "Photosynthesis: The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis and the Primary Quantum Conversion Act of Photosynthesis.", Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory-Berkeley, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (November 22, 1952).
  • Bassham, J. A., and Calvin, M. "The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis", Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Lawrence Radiation Laboratory-Berkeley, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (October 1960).
  • Calvin, M. "The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis (Nobel Prize Lecture).", Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory-Berkeley, United States Department of Energy (through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (December 11, 1961).

See also

  • List of Jewish Nobel laureates

References

  • including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1961 The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis
  • Nobel speech and biographmems/mcalvin.html Tribute by Glenn Seaborg and Andrew Benson
  • Biographical memoir by Glenn Seaborg and Andrew Benson
  • U.S. Patent 4427511 Melvin Calvin – Photo-induced electron transfer method
  • Encyclopædia Britannica article
  • USPS News Release: Celebrating American Scientists Press release for the new Forever Stamp designs featuring Melvin Calvin.
  • National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir