22nd International Symposium on Gas Kinetics
The Polanyi medal, named after Michael Polanyi, 1891-1976.
Conference History
The Polanyi medal is awarded every two years, at the International Symposium on Gas Kinetics. The recipient is chosen by the Committee of the Gas Kinetics Group of the Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and is someone who has made outstanding contributions to the field of Gas Kinetics. Below is a summary of past recipients, with links to additional information on their contributions to gas kinetics.
| Symposium | Year | Symposium Location | Polanyi Award Recipient | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0th | 1967 | Swansea, UK | ||
| 1st | 1969 | Szeged, Hungary | ||
| 2nd | 1971 | Swansea, UK | ||
| 3rd | 1973 | Brussels, Belgium | ||
| 4th | 1975 | Heriot-Watt, UK | ||
| 5th | 1977 | UMIST | ||
| 1979 | Richard Zare * | Stanford University, USA | ||
| 6th | 1980 | Southhampton, UK | ||
| 1981 | Dudley Herschbach | Harvard University, USA | ||
| 7th | 1982 | Göttingen, Germany | Brian Thrush | University of Cambridge, UK |
| 8th | 1984 | Nottingham, UK | B. S. Rabinovitch | University of Washington, USA |
| 9th | 1986 | Bordeauz, France | Sid Benson | University of Southern California, USA |
| 1987 | Fred Kaufmann (posthumously) | University of Pittsburg, USA | ||
| 10th | 1988 | Swansea, UK | John Polanyi | University of Toronto, Canada |
| 11th | 1990 | Assisi, Italy | Ian W. M. Smith | University of Birmingham, UK |
| 12th | 1992 | Reading, UK | Jurgen Tröe | University of Göettingen, Germany |
| 13th | 1994 | Dublin, Ireland | Michael J. Pilling | University of Leeds, UK |
| 14th | 1996 | Leeds, UK | John Simons | University of Oxford, UK |
| 15th | 1998 | Bilbao, Spain | A. R. Ravishankara | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA |
| 16th | 2000 | Cambridge, UK | Jürgen Wolfrum | University of Heidelberg, Germany |
| 17th | 2002 | Essen, Germany | Gus Hancock | University of Oxford, UK |
| 18th | 2004 | Bristol, UK | David Clary | University of Oxford, UK |
| 19th | 2006 | Orleans, France | Horst Hippler | Karlsruhe University, Germany |
| 20th | 2008 | Manchester, UK | Piergiorgio Casavecchia | University of Perugia, Italy |
| 21st | 2010 | Leuven, Belgium | Stephen R. Leone | University of California at Berkley, USA |
* Medal awarded at Faraday Discussion 67, "Kinetics of State Selected Species", in Birmingham, 1979.
The Polanyi medal is named after Professor Michael Polanyi, 1891-1976, whose research helped to define the modern subject of gas kinetics and reaction dynamics. A native of Hungary, Polanyi received his PhD from Budapest University in 1917, on the subject of thermodynamics of adsorption. After working in Berlin, Polanyi emigrated to England in 1933 to become Professor of Physcial Chemistry at Manchester University, a position he held until 1948, when he moved to philosophy and became Professor of Social Science, also at Manchester.
In 1959 he bacame a Senior Research Fellow at Merton College, Oxford. Polanyi published over 200 scientific papers between 1916-1948 on a wide range of topics: adsorption, reaction kinetics, x-ray diffraction to name a few. Polanyi's laboratory at Manchester attracted students and established scientists from all over the world. After the 2nd world war, Polanyi increasingly turned his attention from science to economics and Philosophy. His son, John Polanyi, was a recipient of the Polanyi Medal in 1988.