CALVIN, Melvin

(b. 8 April 1911 in Saint Paul, Minnesota; d. 8 January 1997 in Berkeley, California), biochemist who received the 1961 Nobel Prize for chemistry for his discovery of the chemical pathways of photosynthesis.

Calvin was the son of Elias Calvin, a factory worker originally from Lithuania, and Rose Irene (Hervitz) Calvin, a homemaker originally from what is now the nation of Georgia. Calvin attended public schools and graduated from Central High School in Detroit, Michigan, in 1927. He received his B.Sc. in chemistry in 1931 from the Michigan College of Mining and Technology (now the Michigan Technological University) in Houghton, Michigan, where he was the college's first chemistry major, and his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1935 from the University of Minnesota. His doctoral work was under the direction of George A. Glocker, and his dissertation examined the electron affinity of halogens—that is, the means by which elements in the halogen family (including chlorine and fluorine) exert the strong chemical bonding forces that they do. Calvin was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, and from 1935 to 1937 worked with Michael Polanyi, a Hungarian-born physical chemist best known for his work on adsorption processes and his philosophy of science and society, at the University of Manchester, England. While studying in Manchester, Calvin developed an interest in coordination catalysis, especially metalloporphyrins (organic molecules producing chlorophyll and hemoglobin).

Calvin's academic career started in 1937 at the University of California, Berkeley, as an instructor, at the invitation of Gilbert N. Lewis. He was the first non-Berkeley graduate to be hired by the Department of Chemistry in more than twenty-five years and was one of the first chemists to join Ernest O. Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory. Calvin became assistant professor in 1941, associate professor in 1945, full professor in 1947, and university professor of chemistry in 1971. He developed an interest in the theoretical aspects of organic molecular structure and behavior. (The term organic in chemistry refers to the study of carbon-containing compounds.) His two main publications during his early years at Berkeley were The Color of Organic Substances (1939), with G. N. Lewis, and The Theory of Organic Chemistry (1941), with G. E. K. Branch.

His career was interrupted from 1941 to 1945 as he worked on government projects during World War II, including the National Defense Research Council and two years on the Manhattan Project. On 4 October 1942 Calvin married Marie Genevieve Jemtegaard; they had two daughters and one son.

Calvin's work in photosynthesis (the process by which green plants use solar energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen) began in the mid-1940s. Calvin was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his explanation of the process of photosynthesis. He developed a system using carbon-14, utilizing the newly available radioisotopes from the Hanford and Oak Ridge National Laboratories, as a tracer in the green algae Chlorella. He and his team mapped the complete route that carbon travels through a plant during photosynthesis, starting from its absorption as atmospheric carbon dioxide to its conversion into carbohydrates and other compounds. His experiments consisted of arresting Chlorella's growth at various stages and measuring the amount of radioactive material present, thus being able to identify most of the reactions involved in the intermediate steps of photosynthesis.

Calvin's work showed that sunlight acts on the chlorophyll in a plant to fuel the manufacture of organic compounds other than just carbon dioxide, as previously believed. It was already known that there were two interdependent processes in photosynthesis: the light reaction, in which a plant captures energy from sunlight, and the dark reaction, in which carbon dioxide and water combine to form carbohydrates such as sugar and starch. Calvin's work on photosynthesis concentrated on the light-independent reaction, previously referred to as the dark reaction. Calvin used paper chromatography (a method used to analyze complex mixtures by separating them into the chemicals from which they are made, with paper used as a stationary phase), to identify ten intermediate products generated by the photosynthetic process. This cycle of reactions is now referred to as the Calvin Cycle.

Calvin was director of the organic chemistry group in the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory from 1946, and he established the laboratory's Chemical Biodynamics Division, which he directed for twenty years.

A new, three-story building was opened on the Berkeley campus in 1963 to house his research group. The doughnut-shaped structure, designed by Calvin, had an open interior with radial lab benches, all intended to foster an atmosphere of cooperative teamwork. Upon Calvin's retirement, the unique, circular building was renamed the Melvin Calvin Laboratory.

Calvin received numerous awards and honorary degrees during his lifetime, including election to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Letters, and the German Academy of Scientists. Calvin wrote more than 500 papers and seven books, including Chemical Evolution (1969). Calvin received the Davy Medal from the Royal Society of London (1964), the Priestley Medal from the American Chemical Society (1978), the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Scientists (1979), and the National Medal of Science (1989). From 1963 to 1966, during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Calvin was a member of the President's Science Advisory Committee, and in 1975, under President Gerald R. Ford, he served on the President's Advisory Group on Major Advances in Science and Technology. Calvin also advised the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Energy. Both NASA's moon missions and its search for extraterrestrial life were influenced by Calvin's input. His efforts included protecting the Moon against biological contamination from Earth during the Apollo landings; preventing cross-contamination between the Moon and Earth; searching for organic and biological compounds in lunar samples; and planning for the search for biological compounds on other planets.

In 1980, after stepping down from the directorship of the laboratory of chemical biodynamics, Calvin directed a small research group in the chemistry department until 1996, studying artificial photosynthesis and plant-produced fuel and chemical feedstock substitutes. He maintained a lifelong interest in adapting photosynthetic techniques for energy production.

After years of failing health, Calvin died at the age of eighty-five from a heart attack. On 25 January 1997 a memorial service was held for him at Hertz Hall at Berkeley. Calvin's alma mater, Michigan Technological University, established the Melvin Calvin Nobel Laureate Lecture in 1997. In 2002 Berkeley announced the creation of the Melvin Calvin Distinguished Professorship in the department of chemistry.

Biographical information about Calvin is in Eduard Farber, Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry, 1901–1961 (1963); David W. Swift, SETI Pioneers: Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (1990): 116–135; and David H. and Diane W. Husic, Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, 1901–1992 (1993): 423–425. Obituaries are in the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle (both 10 Jan. 1997) and the Los Angeles Times (11 Jan. 1997).

Maria Pacheco