Nobel Prize

Work of Nobel Prize-winner John Polanyi celebrated in ��˾��ֱ�� exhibit

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 28 May 2024 18:48:11 +0000

Work of Nobel Prize-winner John Polanyi celebrated in ��˾��ֱ�� exhibit

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/28/2024 - 14:48

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University Professor Emeritus and Nobel laureate John Polanyi said he is "deeply humbled and grateful” for the new permanent exhibit, which honours his seminal research and his advocacy for responsible science (photo by Diana Tyszko)

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The department of chemistry also recently renamed the research wing of the Lash Miller building in Polanyi's honour

The groundbreaking work of University Professor Emeritus John Polanyi, celebrated chemist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986, is the focus of a new permanent exhibit at the Lash Miller building, home of the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Through still images, video and equipment, the dynamic exhibit tells the story of Polanyi's career including his seminal work in the field of reaction dynamics – a branch of chemistry that investigates what happens during chemical reactions.

The centrepiece of the exhibit is a replica of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry medal awarded to Polanyi (photo by Diana Tyszko)

The display includes original equipment used in Polanyi’s early research, a reproduction of the lab notebook used by his graduate student to document their experiments and a video chronicling the process of discovery – along with a replica of his Nobel Prize medal.

"It’s been my good fortune to be surrounded by brilliant colleagues and other supporters throughout my life and career," Polanyi said. "I'm deeply humbled and grateful for this marvelous display and ongoing recognition of my life’s work.”

“John Polanyi holds a revered place in the history of the University of Toronto and his legacy is an inspiration for all of us,” said ��˾��ֱ�� President Meric Gertler. “This installation is a compelling expression of his achievements. All those responsible deserve our thanks and congratulations.”

The exhibit includes a reproduction of the notebook in which Polanyi’s graduate student Ken Cashion documented the results of the experiment that delivered the groundbreaking discovery (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Polanyi came to ��˾��ֱ�� from Princeton University in 1956, and not long after, made his seminal discovery: his detection of infrared radiation released upon the collision of hydrogen and chloride molecules was the first observation of energy produced from the vibration of new molecules immediately after their formation.

His work went on to influence the development of advanced instrumentation in domains like pharmaceutical research, medicine and chemical manufacturing – including the development of the first chemical lasers.

“The university made a significant investment in me, a young scholar,” said Polanyi. “The environment and the resources I received enabled me to pursue a new and unknown direction in chemical physics.”

In 1974, he was named a University Professor – the highest academic honour bestowed by the university on its faculty members – and in 1994, the John C. Polanyi Chair in Chemistry was established.

The exhibit tells the story of the Nobel Prize-winning discovery in the field of reaction dynamics, and University Professor Emeritus John Polanyi’s advocacy for nuclear disarmament and the responsible use of science (photo by Diana Tyszko)

In tandem with the new exhibit, the department of chemistry also recently renamed the research wing of the Lash Miller building in his honour.

“The John Polanyi research wing and this new display will serve to permanently highlight John's legacy for current and future young scholars,” said Professor Mark Lautens, chair of the department of chemistry. “John has brought great visibility and prestige to the University of Toronto through his groundbreaking studies and his contributions that go well beyond scientific discovery. We are equally grateful [for] and proud of his advocacy for science, for peace and for a better world.”

Inspiration for the exhibit came after Polanyi donated some of his equipment to the department of chemistry upon his retirement in 2020. A special celebration was held in his honour at Massey College in the fall of 2022, after which Professor Robert Batey, then department chair, with support from the Faculty of Arts & Science dean Melanie Woodin and the Offices of the President and the Vice-President, Research & Innovation, led the development of the exhibit to celebrate Polanyi’s impact and legacy.

“John has made tremendous contributions to the world of science as well as society at large through his advocacy for nuclear disarmament," said Batey. "We are proud to be able to celebrate his work this way in the place that has been his professional home for so many years.”

“This display is a fantastic tribute to Professor Polanyi's remarkable career as a scientist, a teacher and a global citizen,” said Woodin. “It is a fitting acknowledgement for someone who has engendered a network of excellence that stretches across countries and continents.”

University Professor Emeritus John Polanyi (pictured second from the right) was joined in viewing the exhibit by (l to r) department of chemistry chair Mark Lautens, portrait painter Brenda Bury and former department chair Robert Batey (photo by Diana Tyszko)

The department of chemistry and Toronto-based communications and design firm Snack worked closely with Polanyi on the development of the display, drawing from his extensive archive of memorabilia and donated equipment.

The exhibit also captures Polanyi’s advocacy for the responsible use of science and a keen social conscience that compelled him to campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons throughout his career. “A great university that invests in science must also strain to warn of the accompanying risks to humanity," he said.

Prohibition of nuclear weapons the only rational way forward: John Polanyi in the Globe and Mail

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 18:13:53 +0000

Prohibition of nuclear weapons the only rational way forward: John Polanyi in the Globe and Mail

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 12/01/2021 - 13:13

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(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

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Nuclear weapons continue to pose a threat to humanity and should be banned if reason is to prevail over might, says the University of Toronto’s John Polanyi.

In a Globe and Mail op-ed based on a recent speech to the Conference on the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Ottawa, the University Professor Emeritus and Nobel laureate says that the lingering threat of nuclear war is “bereft of reason.”

“Reason gave us science; laws of nature and some laws of man. From this came courts where laws are argued. There is a profound difference between that and drawing a gun,” writes Polanyi, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986 and has long argued for abolishing nuclear weapons.

“To set aside the gun will, however, require an act of will, opposing the continual call for armaments. The rationale for arming is that others do it. This defies logic, since it is a race to no destination except war.”

Polanyi notes that while 122 countries have provided their backing for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the world’s nuclear-armed states – as well as Canada – continue to hold out.

He writes that the goal of prohibition will require these countries to set aside the pursuit of armed power and make a “break with history” for the greater good.

Read the op-ed in the Globe and Mail

‘Science is a contact sport’: What one ��˾��ֱ�� researcher learned in the lab of Nobel laureate William Kaelin

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

‘Science is a contact sport’: What one ��˾��ֱ�� researcher learned in the lab of Nobel laureate William Kaelin

noreen.rasbach Fri, 11/15/2019 - 00:00

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From left, ��˾��ֱ��'s Meredith Irwin, Nobel laureate William Kaelin Jr. and ��˾��ֱ��'s Micahel Ohh, celebrating Kaelin's 60th birthday at the Harvard Faculty Club (photo courtesy of Michael Ohh)

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Nobel Prize

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When University of Toronto Professor Michael Ohh was scouting postdoctoral positions at Harvard Medical School in the mid-1990s, a group of Canadians that often gathered to talk science told him to check out the molecular oncology floor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, run by legendary virologist David Livingston.

It turned out to be good advice.

Ohh met with three young investigators Livingston had trained and hired, including the clinician-scientist William Kaelin Jr. “The floor was full of bright and driven people, and the electricity in the air was palpable,” recalls Ohh, now a professor of laboratory medicine and pathobiology and of biochemistry at ��˾��ֱ��.

Ohh spent the next five years in Kaelin’s lab and co-authored several papers on how cells respond to changes in oxygen levels – research that contributed to Kaelin being awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The work also set the stage for Ohh’s career as an independent scientist in Toronto, and it continues to bear fruit and hold promise for treatments of cancer and other diseases.

“One of the most significant things I learned in Bill’s lab was a rigorous approach to science,” says Ohh. “He really wanted you to nail the mechanism with a series of elegant experiments and he understood that process is highly competitive with other labs. He often said, ‘Science is a contact sport.’”

Ohh calls his time in Kaelin’s lab a “tour of duty” – unbearably stressful at times, but balanced by the excitement of doing fascinating science with talented people.

Kaelin’s lab was focused on three tumour suppressor genes. Two were well known, but the third was a newly discovered gene called VHL that had been shown to cause von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, a rare hereditary disorder in which patients develop multiple benign and cancerous tumours.

Only a handful of labs in the world studied VHL at the time and virtually nothing was known about its function. “We tried a guilt-by-association approach, looking for proteins with which VHL interacted in the hope that these might shed clues to VHL function,” says Ohh.

By the late 1990s, they had found several and determined that those proteins are part of a larger complex that likely targets other proteins for destruction.

They showed that without a functional VHL protein, these complexes are unable to degrade another protein called hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), which in turn spurs tumour cell survival and growth even in low-oxygen microenvironments.

The mechanism at play in von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, in other words, also impacts how all cells sense and adapt to oxygen deprivation. “The worlds of hypoxia and VHL collided in that discovery,” says Ohh.

Researchers have since developed ways to control how cells sense and adapt to changes in oxygen, and are applying those findings for various conditions. A drug based on this approach is in clinical trial for various cancer types, and the findings also look promising in pre-clinical research for cardiovascular disease and anemia.

Ohh’s lab in Toronto has just figured out why certain people with mutations in another HIF gene get cancer and/or polycythemia (an excess of red blood cells). Recent clinical reports have detailed the plight of people with this mutation, and clinicians are now asking Ohh’s lab if they can help predict what disease their patients will eventually develop, so they can better monitor their patients for these conditions.

“Early detection is critical for outcomes in cancer treatment, so this is useful, highly personalized medicine,” says Ohh. “And it’s an extension of the work we did 20 years ago, which is gratifying.”

Ohh and his lab are also looking at evolutionary aspects of this molecular pathway. They are studying evolutionary diversions of the pathway among different animals over millions of years to see which genetic sequences and motifs are conserved.

Insights into these diversions could offer ways to understand the precise mechanisms and critical regions of HIF and VHL by which cells better respond to oxygen fluctuations.

Great science isn’t the only product of the Kaelin lab. Ohh met his wife Meredith Irwin there when she was a research trainee, and they have been together for two decades. Irwin is a professor of pediatrics, medical biophysics and laboratory medicine and pathobiology at ��˾��ֱ��, as well as a clinician-scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Irwin was born and raised in New York, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, and trained at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber for more than a decade.

The couple travelled to Boston for Kaelin’s 60^th birthday two years ago. “They asked us to give talks, and afterward Bill made a comment about me stealing an American to Canada,” says Ohh. “We really are very happy here in Toronto.”

Nobel Laureate John Polanyi: 'What can we do to prevent nuclear war?'

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 05:00:00 +0000

Nobel Laureate John Polanyi: 'What can we do to prevent nuclear war?'

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/14/2019 - 00:00

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��˾��ֱ��'s John Polanyi remains committed to raising the public’s awareness of the threat of the arms race: “Our task is to keep that process of education going" (photo by Johnny Guatto)

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This past August, six months after the contentious breakdown of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and mere days after joint U.S.- South Korea military exercises ended, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.

The missiles prompted an international response, including a call from South Korea for the restart of talks between the U.S. and its neighbour to the north.

The incident was yet another tense confrontation between nuclear powers – a litany that began in the mid-20^th century with the atomic bomb, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, the Korean War and other global events.

The chilling history of the Cold War, the arms race and nuclear proliferation was recently recounted by John Polanyi, Nobel laureate and a University Professor at the University of Toronto’s department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science, in a talk titled “What can we do to prevent nuclear war?”

Polanyi, a Fellow of the Royal Society – the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences – as well as a Companion of the Order of Canada, was speaking at an event organized by the ��˾��ֱ�� chapter of Science for Peace. It took place on Oct. 2 at the George Ignatieff Theatre and was livestreamed.

In his opening remarks, Adnan Zuberi, a ��˾��ֱ�� alumnus and a member of the chapter’s board of directors, explained that Science for Peace “seeks to understand and act on matters of militarism, social injustice and environmental destruction.”

He added that Science for Peace was founded in 1981 when “many notable academic scientists at ��˾��ֱ�� saw the Cold War and the number of nuclear weapons getting out of control and realized they had to step in and bring scientific reasoning and sensibility to de-escalate matters.”

Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a University Professor in the department of Earth sciences, introduced Polanyi, pointing out that the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry could rightly claim a share in the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize as well. It was awarded to the Pugwash Conferences – a global movement of scholars dedicated to reducing the threat of armed conflict – and Polanyi was the founding chair of the Canadian Pugwash.

Sherwood Lollar described Polanyi as “a conscience for the idea of how scientists and engineers can act with and in support of society to move us forward on the kinds of goals and enormous challenges that are facing us.”

Polanyi began by paying his respects to Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate change activist who was in Canada at the time of the talk.

“What she said to the UN General Assembly could just as well be said about the arms race and nuclear weapons. She said, ‘You pretend that this can be solved by business as usual. Change is coming whether you like it or not.’ I see this as being true of the grievous danger we face in a nuclear war.”

As Polanyi continued, it became clear that his life and the history of the arms race have been woven together since the Cold War began.

In 1950, U.S. President Harry Truman was still deciding whether to greenlight the development of the hydrogen bomb – a device that would dwarf the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – when Polanyi’s friend, German-American theoretical physicist Hans Bethe, had an article published in Scientific American magazine that made a passionate case against the new weapon.

Polanyi quoted Bethe’s article, saying, “‘Can we [the U.S.], who insist on morality and humanity, introduce this weapon of total annihilation into the world? Shall we convince the Russians of the value of the individual by killing millions?’

“We’re still trying to absorb the truth of what Bethe said. That we shouldn’t have anything to do with such a weapon.”

The H-bomb was developed by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union and it was in the shadow of this growing threat that Polanyi attended the Pugwash Conference in Moscow in 1960.

In Moscow, Polanyi’s “hero,” Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard, addressed the problem of nuclear proliferation by suggesting that the U.S. and Soviets should be limited to one weapon each – “one buried under Moscow and one under Washington.”

Despite attempts to limit global nuclear arsenals, Polanyi explained, the number of weapons grew into the tens of thousands and eventually abated, not because of the effectiveness of mutual deterrence, but through a thawing of the Cold War under Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Polanyi observed that the threat of nuclear conflict is as real today as when U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev inched the world to the brink of nuclear war when the Soviets deployed ballistic missiles in Cuba.

He reminded the audience that the latest chapter is being written by Trump and Kim, “one of whom is becoming unhinged” – without specifying which of the two leaders he was referring to.

Despite the gravity of the subject and the dramas being played out on today’s geopolitical stage, Polanyi remains inspiring, optimistic and – as his talks and public appearances attest – committed to the importance of raising the public’s awareness of the threat of the arms race.

“Our task is to keep that process of education going,” he said, answering the question in the talk’s title. “We should rejoice that we were born at this time and have that noble task ahead of us.”

For aspiring ��˾��ֱ�� physicist, meeting with Nobel Prize winners a rare chance to learn from world's brightest

noreen.rasbach — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 21:06:16 +0000

For aspiring ��˾��ֱ�� physicist, meeting with Nobel Prize winners a rare chance to learn from world's brightest

noreen.rasbach Wed, 10/09/2019 - 17:06

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Patrick Pallagi, a second-year student studying physics, recently travelled to Germany for the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, where about 40 Nobel Prize winners gathered to meet the next generation of scientists (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

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Patrick Pallagi, a second-year student studying physics at the University of Toronto, has come closer than most to the prestigious Nobel Prize.

The student at St. Michael’s College recently travelled to Lindau, Germany to participate in the 69^th annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, where about 40 Nobel Prize winners gathered to meet the next generation of scientists between June 30 and July 5.

He was one of just 580 young scientists invited to attend the event.

“I waited around six months to see what was going to happen, and then I received an email that I was accepted,” said Pallagi, who is originally from Hungary and came to ��˾��ֱ�� through the Pearson Scholarship.

He added that he was encouraged to apply to attend the conference by his mentor in Budapest.

The Nobel Prize committee is busy handing out the 2019 awards this week. On Wednesday, it announced Canadian-born physicist James Peebles was one of three researchers who won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology.” Today, the committee gave the prize in chemistry to a trio of researchers for the development of lithium-ion batteries.

As for last summer’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, Pallagi said he had a chance to learn from renowned physicists such as Steven Chu, who was energy secretary under the Obama administration and won the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Pallagi, who is pursing a double major in physics and the history and philosophy of science, told ��˾��ֱ�� News he was intrigued at how Chu was an early supporter of Tesla and the electric car industry. He said he also learned about the value of looking at science from a public policy angle.

“We had a great conversation with him about science policy,” Pallagi said.

Pallagi also had the opportunity to talk to Canadian Nobel winners such as astrophysicist Arthur McDonald, who was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, and laser physicist Donna Strickland, who won the same award last year.

“(Strickland) made a great presentation about how her thesis statement was a great new idea at the time, and how her first paper became a ground-breaking revolution in laser physics that she didn’t anticipate at all,” said Pallagi.

At ��˾��ֱ��, several faculty and alumni have received the Nobel Prize over the years. They include Sir Frederick Banting, who won the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering insulin’s properties in treating diabetes, and University Professor John Polanyi, who won the chemistry prize in 1986.

Pallagi said he was looking forward to seeing whose work is highlighted by the Nobel committee this year.

“I think (science and technology) can be used to help people from various backgrounds and enhance their quality of life… and the Nobel Prize, I think, is in support of this,” Pallagi said.

Watch ��˾��ֱ�� honorary degree recipient Setsuko Thurlow deliver her convocation address

Romi Levine — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 15:16:47 +0000

Watch ��˾��ֱ�� honorary degree recipient Setsuko Thurlow deliver her convocation address Romi Levine Wed, 06/05/2019 - 11:16

Convocation 2019

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‘Be agents of change’: Hiroshima survivor and anti-nuclear activist Setsuko Thurlow receives ��˾��ֱ�� honorary degree

Romi Levine — Mon, 03 Jun 2019 15:30:22 +0000

‘Be agents of change’: Hiroshima survivor and anti-nuclear activist Setsuko Thurlow receives ��˾��ֱ�� honorary degree

Romi Levine Mon, 06/03/2019 - 11:30

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Setsuko Thurlow has dedicated her life to abolishing nuclear weapons (photo by Steve Frost)

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Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

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When the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, Setsuko Thurlow was less than two kilometres from ground zero.

She was 13 at the time of the blast, which killed more than 140,000 people including a number of Thurlow’s family members and schoolmates.

“It’s not easy to carry these memories,” Thurlow told the National Post in 2017. “We learned how to step over the dead bodies.”

Knowing first-hand the devastation of nuclear attacks, Thurlow has dedicated her life to educating people around the world about the threat of nuclear weapons.

“By sharing my personal testimony, I have attempted to put a human face to the often abstract discussion of nuclear weapons with a hope that such an approach would help people to gain a deeper understanding, with empathy and sensitivity for the catastrophic human impact that nuclear weapons can inflict,” she said at an event hosted by the University of Toronto last year.

Watch Setsuko Thurlow deliver her remarks:

Thurlow accepted the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago on behalf of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). The global coalition of non-governmental organizations played an important role in the creation of the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a historic measure that prohibits all nuclear weapons.

After completing her undergraduate degree at Hiroshima Jogakuin University, Thurlow moved to the U.S. to attend college, where she met and eventually married Canadian historian Jim Thurlow. The couple moved to Toronto where Setsuko earned a master’s degree in social work from ��˾��ֱ��.

On Tuesday, she returns to her alma mater to receive an honorary degree. Thurlow will be recognized with a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, for “her outstanding service for the public good, as an advocate and champion for peace, and as a volunteer leader for the global nuclear disarmament community.”

(photo by Thea Mjelstad)

Thurlow will be addressing graduates from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at their convocation ceremony. Later that day, a reception will be held in her honour where University Professor of chemistry and Nobel Laureate John Polanyi will be speaking about the magnitude of her accomplishments.

“Setsuko at 13 had the instincts of a scientist,” said Polanyi in remarks prepared for the event. “Finding herself propelled into a nightmare world, she held back her tears. Instead she chose to observe and draw conclusions. She determined to devote herself to ending the danger.”

Polanyi likened the importance of ICAN’s advocacy to the movement to abolish slavery in the 18^thand 19^thcenturies. “They serve as an inspiration to us all,” he said of Thurlow and her colleagues.

Thurlow’s dedication to nuclear disarmament has earned her numerous accolades, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award, membership in the Order of Canada and the designation of “peace ambassador” by the city of Hiroshima.

Setsuko Thurlow’s message to the Class of 2019:

1. Think beyond yourselves. Life has much more meaning when you do things for the collective good; things that you don’t really have to do, but which ultimately give your existence a sense of purpose.

2. Get involved, take action, be agents of change, make things happen.

3. Persist.

4. Unshakeable, visionary love is the only power that can overcome the problems besetting our world.

Painting of historic insulin lab by ��˾��ֱ��’s Frederick Banting up for auction

Romi Levine — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 16:36:39 +0000

Painting of historic insulin lab by ��˾��ֱ��’s Frederick Banting up for auction

Romi Levine Thu, 10/04/2018 - 12:36

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The Lab (1925) by Frederick Banting will be auctioned off in November (image courtesy of Heffel Fine Art Auction House)

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History was made at a University of Toronto lab in 1921 when physician Frederick Banting and researcher Charles Best discovered insulin – transforming the lives of people living with diabetes and earning the scientists the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Next month, one lucky bidder will be able to take home a piece of that historic moment.

The Lab, a 1925 painting by Banting depicting the lab where insulin was discovered, will be up for auction by Heffel Fine Art Auction House on Nov. 21.

“When you hold this painting, you really feel like you’re holding a piece of history,” Heffel president, David Heffel, told the Canadian Press.

“Foremost, it’s a great painting by one of Canada’s great painters, but also, that great painter was a Nobel Prize-winning medical scientist.”

The auction house will be donating its commission from the sale to ��˾��ֱ��’s Banting & Best Diabetes Centre.

Read the Toronto Star article

Remembering ��˾��ֱ��'s Walter Kohn

lanthierj — Thu, 05 May 2016 16:33:53 +0000

Remembering ��˾��ֱ��'s Walter Kohn lanthierj Thu, 05/05/2016 - 12:33

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Walter Kohn at the University of California Santa Barbara TEDx event in 2012 (photo by Glenn Beltz via flickr)

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Cynthia Macdonald

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Alumnus rose above tragedy to earn Nobel Prize, inspire generations of students

Walter Kohn’s life as a scientist was extraordinary. One of five Nobel laureates to have graduated from ��˾��ֱ��, his work in chemistry and physics made a profound impact on both fields.

But when Kohn died on April 19 at the age of 93, the life he led outside the laboratory was also remembered – for his remarkable ability to rise above a youth marked by tragedy and dislocation.

Read The New York Times obituary

Born into an Austrian-Jewish family in 1923, Kohn escaped to England via the Kindertransport rescue effort after Hitler annexed Austria in 1938. He later discovered that his parents had perished in Auschwitz. Nonetheless, his own status as a German national was to cause him hardship under Allied rule: he was ultimately exiled, travelling through what he called “U-boat infested waters,” to an internment camp in Quebec.

There he met older internees, teachers who taught him to love math and science; after serving as an infantryman in the Canadian army, Kohn made his way to ��˾��ֱ�� and set about studying math and physics. His program required that he also study chemistry – but here, incredibly, his German citizenship still proved a problem. As an “enemy alien,” he was prevented from entering the chemistry building where, as he put it, “war work was in progress.”

Fortunately, mathematics dean Samuel Beatty made arrangements to waive Kohn’s program requirement, and he was able to complete a bachelor of arts in math and physics in 1945 (University College), and a master of science in math in 1946.

Kohn later settled in the United States, where he earned a PhD at Harvard, and held teaching positions in physics at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh and University of California, Santa Barbara. During the 1960s – though he had not formally studied chemistry since high school in England – he was to help make a discovery that would earn him the 1998 Nobel Prize in that discipline.

Of that discovery, known as Density-Functional Theory, the Nobel academy said: “Walter Kohn showed that it is not necessary to consider the motion of each individual electron. It suffices to know the average number of electrons located at any one point in space.” To this day, his insights assist scientists in the development of materials – from batteries to solar cells – in areas such as medicine and electronics.

Kohn was a man of many interests. He campaigned against the nuclear arms race, produced a documentary on solar power and established a program in Judaic Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

In a letter to the University of California Santa Barbara, UCSB chancellor Henry Yang wrote:

“Professor Kohn was a mentor and role model for colleagues and students alike. Many have been inspired by his incredible life story and his work to promote tolerance and world peace. The tremendous impact of his life and work are beyond anything I can describe. As he put it, Physics isn’t what I do; it is what I am.”

Throughout Kohn's extraordinary life and career, he never forgot ��˾��ֱ��.

“On winning the Nobel Prize, Walter Kohn acknowledged an enduring debt to this university, which had encouraged and inspired him at the most crucial juncture in his life,” fellow Nobel chemistry prize winner and ��˾��ֱ�� professor emeritus John Polanyi wrote in a recent email.

“We remember him today with pride, as we shall in times to come.”

(Visit Flickr to see the original of the photo used at top)

Nobel Prize

Work of Nobel Prize-winner John Polanyi celebrated in ��˾��ֱ�� exhibit

Prohibition of nuclear weapons the only rational way forward: John Polanyi in the Globe and Mail

Read the op-ed in the Globe and Mail

‘Science is a contact sport’: What one ��˾��ֱ�� researcher learned in the lab of Nobel laureate William Kaelin

Nobel Laureate John Polanyi: 'What can we do to prevent nuclear war?'

For aspiring ��˾��ֱ�� physicist, meeting with Nobel Prize winners a rare chance to learn from world's brightest

Watch ��˾��ֱ�� honorary degree recipient Setsuko Thurlow deliver her convocation address

Read more about Setsuko Thurlow Read more about Convocation 2019

‘Be agents of change’: Hiroshima survivor and anti-nuclear activist Setsuko Thurlow receives ��˾��ֱ�� honorary degree

Watch Setsuko Thurlow deliver her remarks:

Setsuko Thurlow’s message to the Class of 2019:

1. Think beyond yourselves. Life has much more meaning when you do things for the collective good; things that you don’t really have to do, but which ultimately give your existence a sense of purpose.

2. Get involved, take action, be agents of change, make things happen.

3. Persist.

4. Unshakeable, visionary love is the only power that can overcome the problems besetting our world.

Painting of historic insulin lab by ��˾��ֱ��’s Frederick Banting up for auction

Read the Toronto Star article

Remembering ��˾��ֱ��'s Walter Kohn

Read The New York Times obituary

Read more about Setsuko Thurlow
Read more about Convocation 2019