Foregoers

John C. Polanyi (1929-)was born in Berlin from Hungarian parents, Michael and Magda Elizabeth Polanyi. The family moved to England in 1933. He obtained his B.Sc. in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1952 at Manchester University.

He shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan Tseh Lee „for contributions to the development of a new field of research in chemistry-reaction dynamics”. Polanyi was born in Berlin, son of Mihály (Michael) Polányi, a world-famous chemist and philosopher, offspring of a family of intellectuals who played a major role in Hungarian cultural life.