Britton Chance

Britton Chance (July 24, 1913 – November 16, 2010) was an American biochemist, biophysicist, scholar, and inventor whose work helped develop spectroscopy as a way to diagnose medical problems. He was "a world leader in transforming theoretical science into useful biomedical and clinical applications" and is considered "the founder of the biomedical photonics." He received the National Medal of Science in 1974.

He also was an Olympic athlete who won a gold medal in sailing for the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in the 5.5 Metre Class.

Early life and education Chance was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. His father was also a mining engineer, chemist, and inventor who held a number of metallurgical patents and created a device that detected carbon monoxide in coal mines using a chemical reaction. Chance's paternal grandfather, Henry Martyn Chance, was a noted geologist and mining engineer who also had a medical degree.

When he was a teenager, the family moved to Haverford, Pennsylvania. When he was 13 years old, he became a licensed as a radiotelegraph operator and built his first powerful radio transmitter.

He graduated from the Haverford School in 1931. He was also the business manager of The Pennsylvania Triangle, the engineering, architecture, and science student magazine. As a graduate student he developed a microflow version of a stopped-flow apparatus. hired him to test the auto-steering device on a round trip from England to Australia on the MS New Zealand Star, a 20,000-ton refrigerator ship.

In 1938, Chance enrolled in Cambridge University. He invented the now standard stopped-flow device to measure the existence of the enzyme-substrate complex in enzyme reaction. He is considered the founder of biomedical photonics, which is now a research field covering biology, medicine, and physics.

Publications Chance published about 392 articles with 28947 citations (h = 92) as of 19 May 2022. The following is a selection of his key papers: Chance, B. and Theorell, H. "Studies on liver alcohol dehydrogenase 2. The kinetics of the compound of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase and reduced diphosphopyridine nucleotide." Acta Chemica Scandinavica. 5 (7–8): 1127—1144 (1951) Chance, B. and Williams, G. R. "Respiratory enzymes in oxidative phosphorylation. I. Kinetics of oxygen utilization." Journal of Biological Chemistry. 217 (1) 383–393 (1955)

He was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Medical Sciences in 1968, the Wistar Institute in 1969, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1971, the Royal Society in 1981, and The International Society for Optical Engineering in 2007. Award for Excellence (Life Sciences), Pennsylvania, 1968 SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering established Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award, presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of biomedical optics. He was an honorary president of the International Society of Oxygen Transport to Tissue. In the 1950s and 1960s, he competed in the United States Olympic sailing trials and also chaired the national governing body of sailing.

For the 1952 Summer Olympics, 5.5-meter class was a new category.

In 1956, he came in first place in Bermuda, winning the Edward Prince of Wales Trophy. In 1961, his team won the 5.5 Meter Class in the international Baltic Regatta sponsored by the U.S.S.R. He also won the 5.5 Metre Class World Championship in 1962 in England, sailing Complex III "with superb helmsmanship and clever sailing tactics" His son Britton was a naval architect who designed sailboats for the Olympics and the America's Cup.

He married Lilian Streeter Lucas in November 1956. They had 4 children: Margaret Chance, Lilian Chance, Benjamin Chance, and Samuel Chance.