This web page offers descriptive text of the REACTION DYNAMICS - John C. Polanyi's Nobel Prize Winning Discovery display in the Lash Miller Chemical building, including information about the exhibits and their accompanying text. It is specifically designed to assist visually impaired visitors. (To access a described version of the video in this display, click here.)
At the far left of the exhibit is a title panel.
Title Panel description: A tall and narrow blue strip running from floor to ceiling, with white text.
Title Panel Text: REACTION DYNAMICS. John C. Polanyi's Nobel Prize Winning Discovery.
Side panel description: Three sections of white text on a dark blue background, accompanying 8 photos described below.
Side panel title: A Life Beyond Science
Text: Inspired by his unique family background and by the expansive intellectual circle that has surrounded him since childhood, John C. Polanyi has made his mark on the world well beyond chemistry. He is a leader in the movement for nuclear disarmament, and an advocate for scientific responsibility.
This text is followed by a set of eight photographs in a block.
- Description/Caption: Polanyi’s parents, Michael and Magda, on their honeymoon in 1921. The two met in Germany, where Michael had emigrated from Hungary due to the rise of the far right. He would later make the difficult decision to move his family to Manchester when Hitler came to power in 1933. Photo courtesy John C. Polanyi private collection.
- Description/Caption: Polanyi speaks with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1978. Photo courtesy Frank Lennon/Toronto Star via Getty Images.
- Description/Caption: Eleven-year-old Polanyi in Toronto, where he was sent for his safety during WWII. Photo courtesy John C. Polanyi Collection, The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto.
- Description/Caption: In 1958 at the University of Toronto, where he had recently been promoted to Assistant Professor. This image is a profile picture shot from the side in black and white in which Polanyi appears to be working on a painting. Photo courtesy John C. Polanyi Collection, The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto.
- Description/Caption: Polanyi with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Ottawa, during her royal tour in 1967. This black and white photo is uncredited.
- Description/Caption: Giving a talk called “Living with the Bomb” at TEDxUofT in 2013. Photo courtesy TEDx Talks.
- Leo Szilard, a friend and former student of his father’s, inspired Polanyi to speak out about nuclear disarmament. Portrait of Szilard, a white man in a suit, holding a newspaper and speaking into an old-fashioned telephone, courtesy Bettman Archive via Getty Images.
- Polanyi, speaking at an event organized by the University of Toronto chapter of Science for Peace in 2019. Colour image courtesy Johnny Guatto/University of Toronto.
Beneath the photographs are two more sections of text in side by side columns
Column 1 Title: The Drive to Be Bold: A Remarkable Family Legacy
John C. Polanyi was born in Berlin on January 23, 1929, to Hungarian parents. Partly due to the rise of fascism in Germany, the family relocated to Manchester, England, in 1933, where his father was appointed Professor of Chemistry at The University of Manchester. Polanyi first became acquainted with Toronto as an 11-year-old, when he was one of many children of The University of Manchester faculty who spent some years sheltered here as “war guests” during WWII.
As a young person with wide-ranging interests, Polanyi enjoyed studying history, politics and science. He settled on chemistry for his post-secondary education. He received his BSc in 1949, and his PhD in 1952, both from The University of Manchester. During these years, he investigated the rates of chemical reactions, which set the stage for his exploration of the molecular basis for chemical reaction.
After his graduation, Polanyi received two appointments in North America: first as Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Research Council in Ottawa from 1952-1954, and then as Research Associate at Princeton University in New Jersey from 1954-1956.
Polanyi joined the University of Toronto faculty in 1956. In 1974, he was awarded the rare honourary title of University Professor, and in 1994 was appointed to the inaugural position of the John C. Polanyi Chair in Chemistry, which he held until he retired in 2020, when he became a Professor Emeritus.
In 1986, Polanyi received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in recognition of his remarkable contributions to advance our understanding of chemical kinetics. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Polanyi has received many professional accolades. A small sampling of his awards includes the Henry Marshall Tory Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, the Isaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize, and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London. Among the many institutions from which he has received honourary degrees are Harvard University, The University of Manchester, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Polanyi comes from a family of intellectuals. His father, Michael, was a well-known chemist and philosopher, who is respected to this day in both fields. His mother was an exceptional chemist in her own right. Polanyi's uncle, Karl, was an influential philosopher and economist.
Polanyi's legacy continues. He was married to Anne Davidson, with whom he has two children: Margaret, a communications executive, and Michael, a political scientist. He is currently married to portrait painter Brenda Bury.
Column 2 title: An Outspoken Leader for Nuclear Disarmament
Polanyi has devoted much of his time and energy to the movement for nuclear disarmament.
He has authored countless articles and given hundreds of speeches to persuade governments and the public about the risks of nuclear weapons and urgent need for arms control.
He was the founding chair of the Canadian Pugwash Group, an international organization dedicated to eliminating armed conflict. Over the years, he was a strong and persistent voice against missile defense in Canada, having advised administrations ranging from those of Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker and Lester B. Pearson in the 1950s and 60s, through to Jean Chrétien in the 2000s.
Polanyi was influenced by family friend and fellow chemist Leo Szilard. Szilard was a man who, in Polanyi’s words, “believed in taking responsibility for the history of your time.” Polanyi embodies this ideal.
To the right of the side panel is a clear display case containing items related to Polanyi's scientific career and Nobel Prize. Displays and captions are described below:
Display Case Rear Wall: The back wall of the display case is a life sized black and white photograph of John C. Polanyi in a lab, surrounded by chemical equipment. In front of the photo are a series of curated items, additional photos, and text, described below in left to right order.
Display Case Text
MARCH 11, 1958
It was a Tuesday evening at the University of Toronto’s Wallberg Building. Faculty member John C. Polanyi, along with his graduate student Ken Cashion, set up an experiment in a janitorial closet, due to lack of space.
Once the experiment was underway, they saw something remarkable: infrared light. Though feeble, the light waves were unmistakable. The field of chemistry was changed forever.
THE EXPERIMENT
Polanyi's hypothesis was that chemical reactions taking place at low pressure would emit infrared radiation characteristic of the motion in the newly born reaction products. These motions were at the time unknown.
In early experiments he and his student Ken Cashion mixed atomic hydrogen with chlorine and, to their delight, were able to record emission of strongly vibrating hydrogen chloride. They then learned from the Head of the Physics, Professor Harry Welsh, how to use curved mirrors to collect even feeble infrared radiation. The way was open to the study of infrared chemiluminescence from many chemical reactions.
“HOLY CROWBAR!”
This was the exclamation of Ken Cashion, a newly ordained priest, upon witnessing the result.
For the first time, patterns of molecular movement could be measured at the moment of reaction – a duration millionths of a second long. The method of chemiluminescence was born, and with it, a new research field known as chemical reaction dynamics.
A TEAM EFFORT
The following years would be fruitful for Polanyi and the new field of reaction dynamics. He and his teams used chemiluminescence to gather evidence of how the energy in the products of chemical reaction is distributed, and for which they identified and named categories such as attractive, repulsive, and migratory reaction dynamics.
DECEMBER 10, 1986
Thirty years after he observed the infrared light, Polanyi received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee.
The Nobel citation recognized the scientists for their contributions to “the development of a new field of research in chemistry – reaction dynamics.” Polanyi was recognized in particular “for developing the method of infrared chemiluminescence, in which the extremely weak infrared emission from a newly formed molecule is measured and analysed.”
In the decades following the Nobel Prize, Polanyi’s prolific research continued to carve new paths in physical chemistry and nanotechnology. Among the instruments central to his work were Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM), which he implemented after learning of the technology from Nobel Prize winners in the Physics category. Knock-on chemistry is just one of many discoveries he and his teams made using STM. Polanyi’s research also led to development of the chemical laser, which has proven indispensable in fields such as medicine and manufacturing.
Objects in display case:
Object 1: The main chamber of Polanyi’s experimental apparatus, with liquid nitrogen trap below. Atomic hydrogen and molecular chloride flowed into the chamber as crossed beams of reagents and reacted to form hydrogen chloride. The infrared light emitted by the newly born molecules was reflected by the gold D-shaped mirrors positioned at either end of the chamber. The mirrors were coated in a thin layer of gold, a material highly reflective of infrared light; their curved shape made it possible to manipulate and direct light for spectral analysis.
Polanyi used this equipment from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Object 2: Infrared spectrometer acquired by the university in the 1950s at Polanyi’s request. The concave mirror at the left side of the instrument collected incoming radiation from chemical reaction products and brought it to focus on the detector. A lithium fluoride prism slowly rotated and dispersed the radiation.
The spectrometer cost $10,000; a hefty price tag at the time. Polanyi proved it well worth the investment.
Object 3: This large lithium fluoride crystal prism dispersed infrared light with a level of detail that allowed Polanyi to “see” different states of vibration product. A smaller prism Polanyi had used previously produced crude peaks of infrared, which was still very important for his initial research; however, this one was much more effective.
Similar in structure to rock salt, the prism had to be covered when not in use, as it would dissolve in water.
Object 4: Infrared sensors made by Kodak in the 1960s. Polanyi incorporated these into his spectrometer to enhance sensitivity in infrared detection. The same ones were adopted by the military, who installed them in aircraft wings to guide heat-seeking missiles.
Object 5: Reproductions of the lab notebook in which Polanyi’s graduate student Ken Cashion documented the results of the original experiment, and the infrared spectra recorded that night.
The infrared emission in the region of wavelengths 1.45 microns extending out into the longer wavelengths as far as 4.23 microns — recorded by hand below the wavelength — covers the interesting region of the infrared, embodying infrared coming from molecules born, vibrationally-excited, in the room-temperature chemical reaction H+Cl2=HCl(v=1-4).
This highly vibrationally-excited HCl would have been expected only from a gas at thousands of degrees centigrade — enough to melt the reaction vessel! But the gaseous product and reaction vessel were cold to the touch of the hand. The gas had been excited not by generalized heating but by vibration in the newly formed reaction product, at the birth of the HCl product.
Object 6: John C. Polanyi’s 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (Replica for display purposes only)
Video: To the far right of the case, an old fashioned television contains a screen playing a video about Polanyi's research and career. A described version of this video is available here.
Front Wall Quotation: The plexiglas wall surrounding the display has a quotation by John C. Polanyi on it: "When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves. Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge.