Obituary : A remembrance of Melvin

After a distinguished career of research and teaching, Melvin Calvin died in Berkeley, California on 8 January 1997, at the age of 85. Throughout his life, Calvin exhibited an intense curiosity that drove his scientific research. Although he may be best known for his contributions to our knowledge of photosynthetic carbon dioxide fixation and reduction, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1961, his interests were much broader and included investigations on chemical evolution, brain chemistry, oncology and solar energy conversion (Calvin 1989; Bassham 1997). Calvin’s inquiries into CO2 fixation began in the mid-1940s. When radiocarbon, 14C, became available at the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Calvin’s laboratory developed methodology for feeding algae CO2 and analyzing radioactive products formed as a function of time. The small amounts of labeled intermediates were detected and their concentration determined using two-dimensional paper chromatography. Similar methodologies were subsequently adapted by other biochemists and applied to the study of many metabolic systems. From the labeling patterns observed, the CO2 fixation and reduction pathway was delineated by Calvin and coworkers, especially Andrew A. Benson and James A. Bassham. Calvin’s interest in photosynthesis extended to all aspects of the phenomenon and in the time period