John Charles Polanyi 
chemist

Nobel Prize Chemistry 1986; Used chemiluminescence of molecules to elucidate energy relationships in chemical reactions.

"The most exciting thing in the 20th Century is science. Young people ask me whether this country is serious about science. They aren't thinking about the passport that they will hold, but the country that they must rely on for support and encouragement."

The Person 

Birthplace Berlin, Germany
Residence Toronto, Ontario
Office Dept. of Chemistry. University of Toronto
Family Members 
  ¥ Father Michael Polanyi
  ¥ Mother Magda Elizabeth (Kemeny) 
  ¥ Spouse Anne (Sue) Ferrar Davidson 
  ¥ Children Michael (political scientist) and Margaret 
     (journalist)

Status Working

Degrees 
  ¥ B.Sc. 1949 Manchester U. 
  ¥ M.Sc. 1950 Manchester U. 
  ¥ Ph.D 1952 Manchester U.

Awards 
  ¥ Marlow Medal of Faraday Society, 62
  ¥ Steacie Prize for Natural Sciences (with N.Bartlett), 65
  ¥ Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, 77
  ¥ Wolf Prize (with G.Pimentel) 82
  ¥ Nobel Prize in chemistry, 86
  ¥ Isaac Walton Killam Memorial Prize, 88
  ¥ Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London, 89
  ¥ Officer of Order of Canada, 74
  ¥ Companion of Order of Canada, 79
  ¥ Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, 66
  ¥ Royal Society of London 71
  ¥ Royal Society of Edinburgh 88
  ¥ Foreign Member of American Academy of Arts and 
     Sciences, 76
  ¥ Foreign Associate of the (U.S.) National Academy of 
     Sciences, 78
  ¥ Member of the Pontifical Academy, Rome, 86

Mentors Father and E.W.R. Steacie

Character Busy, boyish, enthusiastic, helpful

Favourite Music Tchaikovsky

Other Interests 
  ¥ Skiing
  ¥ Walking
  ¥ Art
  ¥ Literature
  ¥ Poetry

The Story 

At about 8 o'clock on a Thursday night John Polanyi walked into the janitorial closet he called a laboratory. It was 1956. The young U. of Toronto lecturer couldn't expect much more. He wasn't even an assistant professor yet. Polanyi's first graduate student, Ken Cashion, wearing his regulation short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt said, "Well, I think we're ready for another run."

"Did you check the seals on the 'Stokes'?" said Polanyi, glancing at the giant vacuum pump thwapping away in the corner.

"Yes. They're not great, but I think she'll hold for one more experiment," said Cashion.

The 'fresh-air' scent of ozone caught Polanyi's nose as Cashion opened the hydrogen valve and flicked a switch. For this experiment they needed to break hydrogen gas (which occurs naturally in pairs of hydrogen molecules) into single atoms. Ken had scrounged the electrical discharge unit from a neon sign. By jolting the flow of hydrogen with 6000 Volts of electricity, they could break the gas into single hydrogen. Polanyi always liked the soft pinky neon glow it made but he worried about hydrogen's explosive power. Some hasty calculations the day before had shown the lab would not blow up, but they weren't entirely sure.

As it turned out, the experiment was a success and they recorded a spectrum that no one had ever seen before. Because Polanyi understood the source of the feeble light emmisions in his experiment, he was able to predict exactly what kind of energy needed to be applied to make this chemical reaction take place. His work helped to answer the question How do you get a chemical reaction to go? Do you tickle the molecules or do you slam them together? It turns out that in some cases tickling works, in others you just have to slam them against each other. As Polanyi says, "The importance of this work was that we had a picture of reacting atoms in the transition state." This understanding eventually resulted in Polanyi's Nobel prize.

History
 
When Polanyi was 11 years old his father who was a university professor at U. of Manchester in England, sent him to Canada so that he would not be hurt during World War II. John stayed with a U. of T. family in Toronto for 3 years. He remembers going on a bicycle camping trip and reading the "Count of Monte Cristo". He was not interested in science much, though his dad was a chemistry professor. He was more interested in sociology and literature.

The Science

1. The Nobel prize winning experiment

When Polanyi arrived at the University of Toronto in 1956 he decided to study this reaction. A lot of energy is given off when hydrogen and chlorine react to form hydrogen chloride, but nobody knew much about the energy. Little did Polanyi realize that this little reaction would lead to a Nobel prize 30 years later.

2. Transition state

For a brief instant at the moment of reaction, the molecules are in a transition state as they turn into new chemicals. Polanyi's experiments led to a picture of the arrangement of atoms in the transition state. Knowing this, he could predict what kind of vibrational and rotational energies would result in a chemical reaction.

3. Chemiluminescence

Polanyi used an infra-red spectrometer to measure the light energy emitted by the new-born reaction products. The product molecules "chemiluminesce". From this very feeble emmision of light, Polanyi was able to distinguish between vibrational and rotational energies in the molecule. Because he understood the source of this light he was able to propose vibrational and chemical lasers, the most powerful sources of infrared radiation ever developed.

4. The "Lab"

Polanyi's graduate student assistant Ken Cashion set up the Nobel Prize winning apparatus and was the first to see the result of the experiment. The two researchers had to "borrow" the spectrometer from others. If anyone had realized how they had dismantled it and modified it for their experiment, they would have been furious.

Mystery for future generation

The molecular basis of life, devices of molecular dimension, observations of chemical reactions under much more widely varying conditions than currently possible.

© 1996 Softshell Small Systems Software Design Inc.
	All rights reserved