Melvin Calvin

Facts

Melvin Calvin

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Melvin Calvin
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1961

Born: 8 April 1911, St. Paul, MN, USA

Died: 8 January 1997, Berkeley, CA, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

Prize motivation: “for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants”

Prize share: 1/1

Work

One of the most fundamental processes of life is photosynthesis. Green plants use energy from sunlight to make carbohydrates out of water and carbon dioxide in the air. Through studies during the early 1950s, particularly of single-cell green algae, Melvin Calvin and his colleagues traced the path taken by carbon through different stages of photosynthesis. For this they made use of tools such as radioactive isotopes and chromatography. Their findings included insight into the important role played by phosphorous compounds during the composition of carbohydrates.

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