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 parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of "biological ch ...

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, 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 un ...

Early life and education

Melvin Calvin was born in

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

, 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 Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michiga ...

(now known as

Michigan Technological University Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michiga ...

) 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 land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

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 The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

. 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 Martin David Kamen (August 27, 1913, Toronto – August 31, 2002, Montecito, California) was an American chemist who, together with Sam Ruben, co-discovered the synthesis of the isotope carbon-14 on February 27, 1940, at the University of C ...

and

Sam Ruben Samuel Ruben (born Charles Rubenstein; November 5, 1913 – September 28, 1943) was an American chemist who with Martin Kamen co-discovered the synthesis of the isotope carbon-14 in 1940. Early life Ruben was the son of Herschel and Frieda Pe ...

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 co ...

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. The team he formed included:

, 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 in ...

, 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 CO₂ fixation and would then crystalize the radioactive succinic acid. This paired with exposing algae to light without CO₂ and then immediately transferring it to a dark flask that contained CO₂ 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 CO₂. There was an issue though, they now needed to determine the first product of the fixation of CO₂. 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 CO₂ 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 CO₂ the level of ribulose bisphosphate could be increased. This was an indication that it was the acceptor molecule for CO₂. 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, Timothy Walker, Director of the

University of Oxford Botanic Garden The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it conta ...

, criticised Calvin's treatment of

, 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.

Honours and legacy

1954 - Elected to the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

1955 - Awarded the

Centenary Prize The Centenary Prize is an award granted annually by the United Kingdom-based Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to up to three "outstanding chemists, who are also exceptional communicators, from overseas". The prize, established in 1947, and fi ...

1958 - Elected a foreign member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

1958 - Elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

1959 - Elected a Member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founde ...

1960 - Elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

1961 - Melvin Calvin received the

“for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants” 1964 - Awarded the

Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). H ...

of the Royal Society 1971 - Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from

Whittier College Whittier College (Whittier Academy (1887–1901)) is a private liberal arts college in Whittier, California. It is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and, as of fall 2022, had approximately 1,300 (undergraduate and graduate) students. It was ...

1978 -

Priestley medal The Priestley Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society (ACS) and is awarded for distinguished service in the field of chemistry. Established in 1922, the award is named after Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen ...

of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

Calvin was featured on the 2011 volume of the American Scientists collection of US postage stamps, along with

Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...

, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and

Severo Ochoa Severo Ochoa de Albornoz (; 24 September 1905 – 1 November 1993) was a Spanish physician and biochemist, and winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Arthur Kornberg for their discovery of "the mechanisms in ...

. 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 The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States ...

(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,

(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.
"The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis XIV."
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Radiation Laboratory–Berkeley,

(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,

(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,

(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,

(through predecessor agency the Atomic Energy Commission), (December 11, 1961).

References

External links

* 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
*

Melvin Calvin – Photo-induced electron transfer method
Encyclopædia Britannica article
Press release for the new Forever Stamp designs featuring Melvin Calvin.
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calvin, Melvin 1911 births 1997 deaths Nobel laureates in Chemistry American Nobel laureates 20th-century American chemists People from Saint Paul, Minnesota Researchers of photosynthesis National Medal of Science laureates Michigan Technological University alumni University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester UC Berkeley College of Chemistry faculty Foreign Members of the Royal Society Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Central High School (Detroit) alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society