Henry Taube biography

Synopsis

Henry Taube (b. 1915) was the first Canadian-born chemist to win the Nobel Prize. He was awarded the honor in 1983 for discovering the basic mechanism of chemical reactions that lie behind everything from enzymes to batteries. His work on electron transfer reactions is especially notable. He taught at several prestigious universities and received many of his profession's highest awards.

Profile

Chemist, born in Neudorf, Saskatchewan, Canada. He studied at the University of Saskatchewan (BS, MS), and went on to take his PhD in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley (1940). He became a US citizen in 1942. While teaching at Cornell (1941–6), he worked during World War 2 at the National Defense Research Committee (1944–5), then taught at the University of Chicago (1946–61). In 1962 he joined the faculty of Stanford University, becoming the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Chemistry (1976, emeritus 1988). During his career he was the recipient of many of the highest awards his profession of inorganic chemistry offers, including the National Medal of Science (1977), the Welch Award (1983), and the Priestly Medal of the American Chemical Society (1985). He won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discovering the basic mechanism of chemical reactions that lie behind everything from enzymes to batteries. He was specifically cited for his work in electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes - work that has applications in the chemical industry - but it was also noted that he had made at least 18 major discoveries in his field. Taube died at age 89 on November 16, 2005, at his home on the campus of Stanford University, where he had taught for two decades.