John Charles Polanyi (born January 23, 1929) is a German/Canadian chemist.

He was born in Berlin, son of distinguished Hungarian chemist Michael and of Magda Elizabeth Polanyi. The family moved to England in 1933 where Polanyi studied at the University of Manchester, his father's workplace, achieving his doctorate in 1952. Emigrating to Canada in 1952, he worked for the National Research Council of Canada before moving to the University of Toronto in 1956.

He is a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada (P.C.). In 1974 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to Companion in 1979.

Through development of the technique of infrared chemiluminescence he developed the understanding of chemical kinetics.

He also won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Yuan T. Lee and Dudley R. Herschbach "for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes."

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about: John Polanyi

• Official website http://www.utoronto.ca/jpolanyi/
• Biography at Nobel e-Museum http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1986/polanyi-bio.html