Melvin Calvin

Calvin, Melvin 

Born Apr. 7, 1911, in St. Paul, Minn. American biochemist. Member of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D. C.

Calvin graduated from the Michigan College of Mining and Technology in 1931. Beginning in 1937 he taught in the chemistry division of the University of California (Berkeley), where he became a professor in 1947. In the 1940’s he began working on the problem of photosynthesis. By 1957, using CO2 with a carbon tracer, he explained the chemical process by which plants assimilate CO₂ (the Calvin carbon reduction cycle) during photosynthesis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1961. Calvin is a foreign member of the London Royal Society and an honorary member of many foreign societies and academies of sciences.

WORKS

Chemical Evolution. Eugene, Ore., 1961.
The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1957. (With J. A. Bassham.)
The Photosynthesis of Carbon Compounds. New York, 1962. (With J. A. Bassham.)