ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 11, 1997 TAG: 9701130051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: NEWS OBIT
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
Melvin Calvin, the University of California, Berkeley professor who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1961 for his analysis of the photosynthesis of plants, has died. He was 85.
Calvin, a leading scientist at the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, died Wednesday at a Berkeley hospital. His health had been declining for several years.
He retired as a professor of chemistry in 1980 but had continued his research until recently.
Called ``Mr. Photosynthesis'' after winning the Nobel, Calvin used radioactive carbon-14 to demonstrate the steps plants use to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar. Photosynthesis is the process of capturing energy from the sun. His research focused on what became known as the ``Calvin Cycle'' in photosynthesis.
Berkeley colleagues said Calvin's research was the first to use a carbon-14 radioactive isotope as a tracer for a chemical pathway. His findings prodded the U.S. Department of Energy to pursue solar energy as a source of power.
``Melvin's work was the cause of this agency starting its solar photochemical energy conversion research,'' said Allan Laufer, team leader with the Department of Energy office of basic energy sciences. ``He showed converting energy from the sun into useful forms was scientifically possible. He was a very influential man.''
In 1960, Calvin became director of the Laboratory of Chemical Biodynamics, which fostered interdisciplinary studies ranging from solar energy to brain chemistry. The laboratory was renamed for him in 1980. In 1992 he received the John Ericsson Award in Renewable Energy.
He wrote seven books and some 500 scientific papers and articles.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB