John Charles Polanyi, PC, CC, Ph.D, D.Sc, FRSC (born January 23, 1929) is a
Canadian chemist.
He was born in Berlin, son of distinguished Hungarian chemist Michael Polanyi
and Magda Elizabeth Polanyi, and nephew of influential economist Karl Polanyi.
The family moved to England in 1933 where Polanyi studied at the University of
Manchester – his father's workplace – achieving his doctorate in 1952.
Emigrating to Canada in 1952, he worked for the National Research Council of
Canada before moving to the University of Toronto in 1956, where he has been
University Professor since 1974 and was a founding Senior Fellow of Massey
College.
He is a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, having been sworn in on
July 1st, 1992. In 1974 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was
promoted to Companion in 1979.
Through development of the technique of infrared chemiluminescence he developed
the understanding of chemical kinetics.
He also won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Yuan T. Lee and
Dudley R. Herschbach "for their contributions concerning the dynamics of
chemical elementary processes."
In 2005, Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council created the
John C. Polanyi Award, acknowledging excellence in Canadian science or
engineering.
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