NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES M E L V I N C ALVIN 1911—1996 A Biographical Memoir by G L E N N T. S EABOR G AN D ANDRE W A . B E N S O N Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir COPYRIGHT 1998 NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS WASHINGTON D.C. MELVIN CALVIN April 8, 1911–January 8, 1997 BY GLENN T. SEABORG AND ANDREW A. BENSON ELVIN CALVIN DIED IN Berkeley on January 8, 1997, at the Mage of eighty-five from a heart attack following years of declining health. He was widely known for his mental intensity, skill in asking questions, and impressive presenta- tion of his research and ideas. During the period 1946-57 Calvin directed laboratories utilizing radiocarbon-14 and other radioisotopes in the Uni- versity of California’s Radiation Laboratory, founded by Ernest Orlando Lawrence. Among his achievements was the delin- eation of the path of carbon in photosynthesis, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1961. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1954. Among his many honors were the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1978, the U.S. National Medal of Science in 1989, and the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1964. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Melvin Calvin was the son of a Lithuanian immigrant father and a mother from Russian Georgia; they ran a small grocery store in Detroit, where young Melvin helped while going to Central High School. He became intrigued by the products on sale in the store, began to wonder what they were made of, and early on recognized the importance of chemistry in their makeup. Deciding to be a chemist, Melvin received his B.S. in 1931 3 4 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS at the Michigan College of Science and Technology (now Michigan Technological University), where he was the college’s first chemistry major. He went on to take a Ph.D. with George C. Glockler at the University of Minnesota in 1935. The next two years were spent working with the intellec- tual giant Michael Polanyi in Manchester, England, where Melvin became interested in phthalocyanines. This first in- cursion into photochemistry was later to lead to chloro- phyll, photosynthesis, and artificial photosynthetic membrane models. A chance visit with Joel Hildebrand at Manchester resulted in an invitation from Gilbert N. Lewis to join the chemistry faculty at the University of California. So, in 1937 Calvin arrived as an instructor at Berkeley, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He was the first non-Berkeley graduate to be hired by the Department of Chemistry in more than a quarter century. His work with G. N. Lewis developed the photochemistry of colored porphyrin ana- logs and their coordination of iron and other central met- als. Melvin was at home in discussions of the excited triplet states of chlorophyll and intermediates in the energy trans- fer processes of photosynthesis, subjects that clearly passed over the heads of most plant biologists of that period. Such discussion later involved James Franck, A. A. Krasnovsky, A. Terenin, George Porter, R. G. W. Norrish, Bill Arnold, Ster- ling Hendricks, and G. O. Schenk. At Lewis’s chemistry departmental research conferences in 1937, he was soon known for his skill in asking impor- tant questions. Throughout his career, Melvin asked ques- tions, seeking to know and understand his surroundings and the research being done in his laboratories. As the radioautographs of the paper chromatograms (Radiograms) were developed, he tried to memorize their information, as well as the information related by the people doing the MELVIN CALVIN 5 laboratory work. Melvin usually finished his lectures and office and committee work about 5:30 p.m. and stopped in at the lab to ask his signature question: “What’s new?” The next morning when Melvin came in at eight o’clock or be- fore (he was an early riser), it was also his first cheery com- ment of the day. There was no letup. His coworkers had to keep some tidbits in reserve so they could always have some- thing interesting to report. When important chromatograms were exposed on X-ray film, they used two sheets, one to develop too early to appease Melvin’s insatiable curiosity and one for proper documentation. Among his skills were effective management of person- nel, budgets, publications, consultancies, and presentations at important scientific conferences. Such skills engendered productive laboratories and enthusiastic collaboration of their scientists. Over the years Calvin’s ever widening activities and responsibilities were efficiently managed through his office. Selection of the 230 to 250 visiting scientists and students, arranging for their schedules and research, han- dling the dozens of distinguished lectureships, and accep- tances of honorary degrees from thirteen institutions con- sumed time, but he was a skilled planner and remarkably quick at making decisions. Melvin Calvin was a fearless scientist, totally unafraid to venture into new fields like hot atom chemistry, carcino- genesis, chemical evolution and the origin of life, organic geochemistry, immunochemistry, petroleum production from plants, farming, moon rock analysis, and development of novel synthetic biomembrane models for plant photosys- tems. By asking questions and quickly reading some books, he felt comfortable in many fields of endeavor. He stimu- lated and supported interdisciplinary thought and research among his colleagues. The circular Melvin Calvin Labora- tory, first occupied in 1964, was designed to promote con- 6 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS tinuous communication for students and visiting scientists working on a broad range of subjects and technologies (and was thus nicknamed “the round house” and “Calvin carou- sel”). The breadth of his interests and experience in chemi- cal science served him well in his interactions with his col- leagues, and he was clearly an awesome figure for visitors and students, whose experience was generally limited in scope. It seemed that he had few peers who could criticize or analyze the impact of his ideas and projects. The pri- mary limitation of his ideas stemmed from his limited ex- perience in mechanics and practical laboratory techniques. His energetic curiosity, however, overcame such limitations as he probed the experience of experts and soon became conversant with a new subject or the operating principle of a new instrument. Melvin was equally fearless in pursuing novel ideas. He had no qualms about suggesting experiments or publishing papers that further research soon undermined. The isola- tion of radioactive succinate from algae fed radioactive CO2 in the dark, conditions where succinate accumulates, led to the suggestion for a C-4 cycle of photosynthetic carbon re- duction. The fact that such a cycle provided no useful in- formation on photosynthetic carbon dioxide reduction didn’t bother him a bit. The most exciting was his thioctic acid theory of photosynthesis, which consumed over a year’s work by the group in the Old Radiation Laboratory. As the sev- eral pillars of evidence began to fall, Melvin was unper- turbed and went on to a new approach. Melvin’s marvelous technique for delivering a scientific lecture was unique. His mind must have roamed constantly, especially in planning lectures. His remarkable memory enabled him to formulate a lecture or manuscript with no breaks in the sequence of his thoughts. His lectures usually began hesitatingly, as if he had little idea of how to begin MELVIN CALVIN 7 or what to say. This completely disarmed his audiences, who would try to guess what he might have to say. Soon enough, however, his ideas would coalesce, to be delivered like an approaching freight train, reaching a crescendo of information at breakneck speed and leaving his rapt audi- ence nearly overwhelmed. One evening at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, his novel theory of photosynthesis was so impressive that, when he finished, the great C. B. van Niel jumped up from his seat in the front row and, with tears in his eyes, congratu- lated Melvin for making the ultimate discovery of the mecha- nism of photosynthesis. It was a great theory, indeed. Melvin Calvin was a survivor. Against great odds, he en- joyed nearly fifty productive years after his frightening ex- perience of a coronary during an Atomic Energy Commis- sion site visit in 1949. He was thirty-eight years old; his father and uncle had succumbed to coronaries at age thirty- seven. It was a sobering thought, indeed. With his wife Genevieve’s determined efforts and his own, he lost 50 pounds, quit smoking, and after a year’s convalescence con- tinued the work he had set about to accomplish. Like so many aspects of his research, it was sheer good fortune that he should suffer a coronary in a room with a distinguished physician, Nathaniel Berlin, and next door to Jack Gofman, a physician and father of LDL and HDL serum lipoproteins and the consequent modern dietary concerns. Clearly, Melvin’s agile mind was working day and night, continuously churning through his data, plans, and deduc- tions. Even the writing of a paper for publication was clearly the result of intense planning. His coauthor would meet him and his secretary at eight o’clock in the morning to find him pacing around the table, ready to dictate the manu- script, the technique he had learned from G. N. Lewis. In an hour his part was finished, and he went off to deliver his 8 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS lecture, while his coauthor would add the numbers and the secretary would transfer it all to paper and after review by members of the laboratory ship it to a journal.