Eugene Rabinowitch

Eugene Rabinowitch (; April 27, 1901 – May 15, 1973)

Early life

Rabinowitch was born Evgenii Isaakovich Rabinovich in Saint Petersburg on ; During WWI Rabinowitch studied chemistry in Saint Petersburg. Initially a supporter of the Russian Revolution, he and his family fled to Kiev and then Warsaw with the onset of the Red Terror in late 1918.

The American Association for Advancement of Science sponsored symposia that Rabinowitch attended: 1939 in Columbus and 1941 at Gibson Island supporting research on the book. Rabinowitch credits Selig Hecht with help in the early stages, and Hans Gaffron for reading the manuscript.

After World War II, Rabinowitch taught and researched botany as a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, continuing his photosynthesis work and publishing the three-volume Photosynthesis and Related Processes. The book is called the "Bible of Photosynthesis", and Rabinowitch a "Prophet of Photosynthesis".

In 1965 he and his student Govindjee contributed an article to Scientific American on the role of chlorophyll in photosynthesis.

On the occasion of the bicentennial of the discovery of photosynthesis, Rabinowitch penned a summary of the stages of this development. A key step was Joseph Priestley's experiment with a sprig of mint to restore oxygen to a vessel depleted of this element by a burning candle. Jan Ingenhousz noted the factors of sunlight and green leaves, Jean Senebier noted the necessity of "fixed air" (carbon dioxide), Nicolas Théodore de Saussure noted the role of water, and Julius Robert Mayer noted the transmutation of light to potential chemical energy.

A bibliography of Rabinowitch's publications was compiled by Govindjee at the department of botany, University of Illinois. The papers of Rabinowitch are held in the special collections at the University of Chicago Library.

Nuclear energy During World War II Rabinowitch worked for the Manhattan Project, and joined the Metallurgical Laboratory (or "Met Lab") at the University of Chicago. As a member of the Committee on Political and Social Problems, chaired by James Franck, Rabinowitch and Leó Szilárd wrote the so-called Franck Report, that "recommended that nuclear energy be brought under civilian rather than military control and argued that the United States should demonstrate the atomic bomb to world leaders in an uninhabited desert or barren island before using it in combat."

In 1959 he re-issued Explaining the Atom that Selig Hecht had written in 1947 when nuclear energy was a novel concept.

Selected publications (1945) Photosynthesis and Related Processes, vol I. Interscience Publishers, New York (1951) Photosynthesis and Related Processes. vol II, part 1. Interscience Publishers, New York (1956) Photosynthesis and Related Processes. vol II, part 2. Interscience Publishers, New York