Persona

Taube, Dr. Henry

1915 -2005

Henry Taube was born in Neudorf, Saskatchewan in 1915. He attended Luther College in Regina; then received his B.Sc. from the University of Saskatchewan in 1935, followed by his M.Sc. in 1937. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California Berkeley in 1940. Unable to obtain an academic position in Canada, he spent his entire professional career in the United States, and became a U.S. citizen in 1942. He served on the faculties at Berkeley (1940-41), Cornell University (1941-46), and the University of Chicago (1946-1961), before moving to Stanford University in 1961. Upon his retirement in 1986 he was named Professor Emeritus.

He published 380 articles and one book. A Royal Society of Canada obituary notice summarizes Taube’s scientific contributions: his “research interests were in both inorganic and organic chemistry: he established the foundations of oxidation – reduction reactions for both electron and atom transfer reactions. In a key paper in Chemical Reviews in 1952 he showed the all-important correlation of ligand exchange reactions and the electronic configuration of coordination compounds. His work has been central to many different fields such a electron transfer at semiconductor electrodes, chemiluminescence, solar energy conversion, photosynthesis, electron transfer in proteins, in colloids, in polymers, and others.” His Nobel Prize was awarded “for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes.”
Taube received many honours and awards throughout his career, including the National Medal of Science (1977), Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1983), the Robert A. Welch Foundation Award in Chemistry (1983), and the Priestly Medal (American Chemical Society, 1985). He was the first Canadian-born individual to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He also received honorary doctorates from nine universities in Canada, the U.S., Hungary and Sweden; and was a fellow or honorary member of several academic societies, including the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Society of London.
He died on 26 November 2005, survived by his wife Mary Alice Taube (married 1952), and by his children Linda, Karl and Heinrich.