Britton Chance
Britton Chance ForMemRS | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Britton Chance (Ron Kroon, 1965) | |
| Born | July 24, 1913 Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania |
| Died | November 16, 2010 (aged 97) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania (B.A) (1935) University of Pennsylvania (M.A.) (1936) University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D) (1940) Cambridge University (Ph.D) (1942) |
| Known for | Enzyme kinetics Optical imaging MRI |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biophysics Biochemistry |
| Institutions | University of Pennsylvania |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's sailing | ||
Representing the  United States
| ||
| Olympic Games | ||
.svg/16px-Gold_medal_icon_(G_initial).svg.png "Gold medal – first place"){kind=icon} |
1952 Helsinki | 5.5 metre class |
| World Championship | ||
|
1962 Poole | 5.5 metre class |
Britton Chance ForMemRS (July 24, 1913 – November 16, 2010) was the Eldridge Reeves Johnson University Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics, as well as Professor Emeritus of Physical Chemistry and Radiological Physics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
At the 1952 Summer Olympics, Chance won a gold medal in sailing.
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Early life and education[edit]
Chance was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. (1935), M.A. (1936), and Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry (1940) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall.
Chance earned a second Ph.D. at Cambridge University in 1942 in Biology/Physiology.
Career[edit]
During World War II, Chance worked for the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which was working on the development of radar. In 1952, he received his D.Sc. from Cambridge.
His research interests were diverse. He was promoted as the professor of biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and appointed the second director of the Johnson Foundation, a position he held until 1983. He was then appointed E. R. Johnson Professor of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry (later renamed as Biochemistry and Biophysics) in 1964 and University Professor in 1977.
In his early career, he was mainly working on enzyme structure and function. He had invented the now standard stopped-flow device to measure the existence of the enzyme-substrate complex in enzyme reaction.[1] He was a pioneer in the numerical simulations of biochemical reactions and metabolic pathways.[2][3]
In later years, while retaining his interest in those fields, he also focused on metabolic control phenomena in living tissues as studied by noninvasive technique such as phosphorus NMR and optical spectroscopy and fluorometry, including the use of infrared light to characterize the properties of various tissues and breast tumors.[4]
Olympic[edit]
He won a gold medal for the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in the 5½ Meter Class, alongside Edgar White and Sumner White.[5]
Awards and recognitions[edit]
Chance joined the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1952. He received the National Medal of Science in 1974.[6] He was also previously elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Medical Sciences, in 1968, as well as a foreign member of the Royal Society (London) in 1981. In 1971 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[7] He died in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in November 2010.[8]
- MDs from: Karolinska Institute (in 1962), University of Düsseldorf (1991), University of Buenos Aires (1993), University of Copenhagen (1995), Universita Degli Studi Di Roma "Tor Vergata" (1997).
- D.Sc. degrees from: Medical College of Ohio at Toledo in 1974, Semmelweis University in 1976, Hahnemann Medical College in 1977, University of Pennsylvania in 1985, University of Helsinki in 1990. He was also made an Overseas Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.
Awards[edit]
Academic awards[edit]
- Paul-Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry, 1950
- John Price Wetherill Medal, 1966
- Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Medicine, College of Physicians, USA, 1987
- Biological physics award of the American Physical Society, 1987
- Gold Medal, Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, USA, 1988
- John Scott Award of the City of Philadelphia, 1992
- SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering Fellow, 2007
- APS - American Physical Society - Fellow, 2007
- Molecular Imaging Achievement Award from the Society for Molecular Imaging, USA, 2008
- ICAS Distinguished Fellow
- ICAS Liberty Award Recipient
Awards named after Britton Chance[edit]
- The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) established The Britton Chance Award in honor of Professor Chance's long-standing commitment, interest and contributions to the science and engineering aspects of oxygen transport to tissue and to the society. This award was first presented in 2004 during the annual conference of ISOTT in Bari, Italy.[9]
- SPIE has established Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award, honoring his significant contribution to biomedical optics. The award will be presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of biomedical optics through the development of innovative, high-impact biophotonic technologies. In particular, the award will acknowledge pioneering contributions to biophotonic methods and devices that have significant promise to accelerate or have already facilitated new discoveries in biology or medicine, and will target achievements that span disciplines and may include elements of basic research, technology development, and clinical translation.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ Kresge N, Simoni RD, Hill RL. Britton Chance: Olympian and Developer of Stop-Flow Methods. J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 50, 10, December 10, 2004.
- ^ Chance, B., Greenstein, D. S., Higgins, J. & Yang, C. C. The mechanism of catalase action. II. Electric analog computer studies. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 37, 322–339 (1952).
- ^ Chance, Britton and Garfinkel, David and Higgins, Joseph and Hess, Benno. Metabolic control mechanisms. V. A solution for the equations representing interaction between glycolysis and respiration in ascites tumor cells. J. biol. Chem. 235, 2726-2439 (1960)
- ^ University of Pennsylvania Archival Collection
- ^ US Sailing Medalists Archived 2008-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ National Science Foundation - The President's National Medal of Science
- ^ "List of Members". www.leopoldina.org. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
- ^ Weber, Bruce (2010-11-28). "Britton Chance, Olympian and Biophysics Researcher, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ ISOT Awards
- ^ SPIE honors Britton Chance with new biomedical optics award
External links[edit]
- A tribute to Britton Chance courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania
- A tribute to Britton Chance
- Faculty Home Page by the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of Penn Medd
- University of Pennsylvania Archival Collection
- a long CV of Prof. Britton Chance
- Britton Chance: His Life, Times, And Legacy
- 100 Greatest Discoveries - Biology
- Britton Chance Papers, American Philosophical Society
- 1913 births
- 2010 deaths
- Alumni of the University of Cambridge
- American biochemists
- American biophysicists
- Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge
- Foreign Members of the Royal Society
- Guggenheim Fellows
- Honorary doctors of the University of Copenhagen
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- National Medal of Science laureates
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in sailing
- Olympic sailors of the United States
- American male sailors (sport)
- People from Mantoloking, New Jersey
- Sailors at the 1952 Summer Olympics – 5.5 Metre
- University of Pennsylvania alumni
- University of Pennsylvania faculty
- American physical chemists
- Haverford School alumni
- Winners of the Heineken Prize
- Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics
- Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
