Melvin Ellis Calvin (April 8, 1912 – January 8, 1997)
was an American
biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...
known for discovering the
Calvin cycle
The Calvin cycle, light-independent reactions, bio synthetic phase, dark reactions, or photosynthetic carbon reduction (PCR) cycle of photosynthesis is a series of chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and hydrogen-carrier compounds into ...
along with
Andrew Benson
Andrew Alm Benson (September 24, 1917 – January 16, 2015) was an American biologist and a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, until his retirement in 1989. He is known for his work in understanding the carbon cy ...
and
James Bassham
James Alan Bassham (November 26, 1922 – November 19, 2012) was an American scientist known for his work on photosynthesis.
He received a B.S. degree in chemistry in 1945 from the University of California, Berkeley, earning his Ph.D. degr ...
, for which he was awarded the 1961
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
. He spent most of his five-decade career at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.
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
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
(now known as Lithuania and Georgia).
At an early age, Melvin Calvin’s family moved to Detroit, MI where his parents ran a grocery store to earn their living. Melvin Calvin was often found exploring his curiosity by looking through all of the products that made up their shelves. Something he quickly recognized is the importance of chemistry to everyday products and our daily lives.
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 Ph.D. at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
in 1935. While under the mentorship of George Glocker, he studied and wrote his thesis electron affinity of halogens. He was invited to join the lab of
Michael Polanyi
Michael Polanyi (; hu, Polányi Mihály; 11 March 1891 – 22 February 1976) was a Hungarian-British polymath, who made important theoretical contributions to physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He argued that positivism supplies ...
as a Post Doctoral student at the
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
. 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,
and they had two daughters, Elin Sowie and Karole, and a son, Noel.
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".
Calvin's original research at UC Berkeley was based on the discoveries of
Martin Kamen and
Sam Ruben in long-lived radioactive
carbon-14
Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...
in 1940.
In 1947, he was promoted to a Professor of Chemistry and the director of the Bio-Organic Chemistry group in the
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory
Lawrence may refer to:
Education Colleges and universities
* Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States
* Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
Preparator ...
. The team he formed included:
Andrew Benson
Andrew Alm Benson (September 24, 1917 – January 16, 2015) was an American biologist and a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego, until his retirement in 1989. He is known for his work in understanding the carbon cy ...
,
James A. Bassham, and several others. Andrew Benson was tasked with setting up the photosynthesis laboratory. The purpose of this lab was to discover the path of carbon fixation through the process of photosynthesis. The large impact of the research was discovering the way that light energy converts into chemical energy.
Using the carbon-14 isotope as a tracer, Calvin, Andrew Benson and James Bassham mapped the complete route that carbon travels through a plant during
photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...
, starting from its absorption as atmospheric carbon dioxide to its conversion into carbohydrates and other organic compounds. 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.
It was created as Calvin had an insatiable curiosity that drove him to become well versed in many fields and recognize the benefits of cross disciplinary collaboration. Open scientific discussion was a large part of his students' everyday lives and he wanted to create a community space where all kinds of minds and knowledge were brought together. In order to help facilitate this in the Roundhouse, he brought in post doctoral students and guest scientists from all around the world.
The community Calvin created within the roundhouse was one that students and staff members felt they could truly reach their potential in. Calvin became known for his management skills which many creative scientific outlets are modeled after today. He was known as Mr. Photosynthesis but that does not even begin to describe how his organizational and management skills revolutionized the scientific community across all fronts.
Discovery of the Calvin cycle
The discovery of the Calvin cycle would start by building on the research done by Sam Ruben and Martin Kamen after their work on the carbon-14 isotope came to an end after Rebun’s accidental death in the laboratory and Kamen found himself in trouble over security breaches with the FBI and Department of State. Despite this Ernest Lawrence, the Radiation Laboratory director, was proud of the work they had done and wanted to see the research furthered so he along with Wendell Latimer, the Dean of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, recruited Calvin in 1945.
The lab's original focus was on the applications of Carbon-14 in medicine and synthesis of radio-labeled amino acids and biological metabolites for medical research. Calvin began to establish the lab by recruiting strong chemists in labs across the country. He then recruited Andrew Benson, who had worked with Ruben and Kamen previously on photosynthesis and C-14, to head that aspect of the lab.
The predominating theory regarding the production of sugars and other reduced carbon compounds was that they were considered to be a “light” reaction. This theory had yet to be disproven. Benson began his investigation by continuing his previous work with the isolation of the product of dark CO
2 fixation and would then crystalize the radioactive succinic acid. This paired with exposing algae to light without CO
2 and then immediately transferring it to a dark flask that contained CO
2 and observing that the radioactive sucrose was still formed at the same rate as when photosynthesis was allowed to be carried out in pure light gave definitive evidence that there was a non-photochemical reduction of CO
2.
There was an issue though, they now needed to determine the first product of the fixation of CO
2. In order to do this, they began utilizing paper chromatographic techniques that were pioneered by W.A Stepka. This allowed them to determine that the first product of CO
2 fixation was 3-Carbon phosphoglyceric acid (PGA). A long known product of glucose fermentation per the reaction outlined years earlier by Ruben and Kamen.
After this discovery, Calvin’s competing lab at the University of Chicago was unable to confirm the discovery and thus created a strong attack on Calvin’s literature. This led to a symposium sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science to determine which lab was correct. Though met with resistance at the conference Calvin and Benson were able to convince the audience of their position and the attack was dismissed.
After this first identification the remaining members of the glycolytic sequence save for two were able to be identified based on their chemical behavior. The two unknown components were sugars. Benson, after noticing their separation on the paper chromatograms and examining their reactivities, realized they were ketoses. Thanks to the collaboration of James A. Bassham the compounds were able to be subjected to periodate degradation. The identification of 14% activity in the carbonyl carbon in one of the sugars made Bassham turn his attention to seven-carbon sugars. Despite several more tests though, Bassham was unable to determine the identities of these two sugars.
Further experimentation showed that through restricting the uptake of CO
2 the level of ribulose bisphosphate could be increased. This was an indication that it was the acceptor molecule for CO
2. Though the mechanism for this was not immediately obvious, Calvin was able to determine one later called the novel carboxylation mechanism which would lead to the series completion in 1958.
Public service
Throughout his life, Calvin acted as a public servant in many different capacities. He served as president of the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Plant Physiology, and the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Along with all of this he also served as chairman of the Committee on Science and Public Policy for the National Academy of Sciences.
One major contribution he had as a public servant was his work with NASA. In collaboration with NASA, he assisted in the creation of plans to protect the moon against biological contamination from the earth and the earth from contamination from the moon during the Apollo missions. As well as, helping strategies on how to best bring back lunar samples and how to search for biological life on other planets.
Along with these servant capacities he also worked as a public servant for the U.S government. He served as a member of the President’s Science Advisory Committee from 1963 to 1966 and served on the top advisory body of the Department of Energy, the Energy Research Advisory Board.
Finally, he served on many international committees and for many international organizations including the Joint Commission on Applied Radioactivity of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the U.S. Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry, and the Commission on Molecular Biophysics of the International Organization for Pure and Applied Biophysics
Controversy
In his 2011 television history of Botany for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, claiming that Calvin had got the credit for Benson's work after firing him, and had failed to mention Benson's role when writing his autobiography decades later.
Benson himself has also mentioned being fired by Calvin, and has complained about not being mentioned in his autobiography.
“for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants”
1964 - Awarded the
Calvin was featured on the 2011 volume of the American Scientists collection of US postage stamps, along with
. 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.
*Bassham, J. A., Benson, A. A., and Calvin, M
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory–Berkeley,
), (January 25, 1950).
*Badin, E. J., and Calvin, M
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory–Berkeley,
), (February 1, 1950).
*Calvin, M., Bassham, J. A., Benson, A. A., Kawaguchi, S., Lynch, V. H., Stepka, W., and Tolbert, N.
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory–Berkeley,
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory-Berkeley,
), (November 22, 1952).
*Bassham, J. A., and Calvin, M
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Lawrence Radiation Laboratory-Berkeley,
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory-Berkeley,
* including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1961 ''The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis''
designs featuring Melvin Calvin.